Books we read in 2024

[Mike]

Books Kyle finished in 2024:
Our Share of Night- Mariana Enríquez; translated by Megan McDowell
The Book of Doors- Gareth Brown
Rhythm of War- Brandon Sanderson
Leech- Hiron Ennis
Angel of Indian Lake- Stephen Graham Jones
You Like it Darker- Stephen King
What Feasts at Night- T Kingfisher
The Salt Grows Heavy- Cassandra Khaw
Legends and Lattes- Travis Baldree
No One Will Come Back For Us- Premee Mohamed
Bookshops and Bonedust- Travis Baldree
Five Broken Blades- Mai Corland
Dawnshard- Brandon Sanderson
Edgedancer- Brandon Sanderson
System Collapse- Martha Wells
Camp Damascus- Chuck Tingle
Don't Fear the Reaper- Stephen Graham Jones
The Eighth Detective- Alex Pavesi
Incarcerat- Garth Marenghi
Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism- Yanis Varoufakis
The Life We Bury- Allen Eskens
The Fury- Alex Michaelides
Pines- Blake Crouch
Mister Magic- Kiersten White
A House with Good Bones- T. Kingfisher
The Nineties- Chuck Klosterman
Silver Nitrate- Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Counting the Cost- Jill Duggar
Lone Women- Victor Lavalle
Seven Empty Houses- by Samanta Schweblin (Author), Megan McDowell (Translator)
One by One- Frieda McFadden
The Woman in Me- Brittney Spears
The Art of War- Sun Tzu
It Was Always You- Sarah Stephens

Books Mike finished in 2024:
A Desolation Called Peace -- Arkady Martine
Electric Kingdom -- David Arnold
How to Become a Darklord and Die Trying -- Django Wexler
Leech -- Hiron Ennis
Cassandra in Reverse -- Holly Smale
I Who Have Never Known Men -- Jacqueline Harpman
Leviathan Wakes -- James S.A. Corey
Cinder -- Marissa Meyer
The 22 Murders of Madison May -- Max Barry
Light Years from Home -- Mike Chen

[Mike]

I can't even write reviews. I got through my 100 book challenge last year, and now nothing!

OK, not nothing. I read part 2 of Arkady Martine's incredible Teixcalaan duology, and it blew me away.

Then I read I Who Have Never Known Men... a real thinky 30-year old Belgian sci-fi novel that was just recently translated to English from the original French. It is quiet and reserved and absolutely stunning. But I have no brainpower to explain further.

Now I am very slowly making my way through Brandon Sanderson's Way of Kings. It seems to be as good as Kyle promised so far, but I'm just in no hurry. I will be lucky to finish five books this year, because my momentum is all gone.

[Kyle]

Rhythm of War- Brandon Sanderson. This is the fourth book in the Stormlight Archives. I love the series and won't belabor the point by going over everything that was great about this book, because I said the same thing about the other three. So go to the 2023 list and read my review of The Way of Kings. I felt like I was getting fatigued in the third book, but in retrospect, I think that was because there was a lengthy story arc in the middle that I thought was filler. This is probably my second favorite in the series. It's just so good and rich. Loved it.

[Phoebe]

Okay I need this and I'm definitely need the Belgian sci-fi.

[Kyle]

I'm taking a Sanderson detox and trying to read the opposite type of fantasy novel. I think I'm calling it Cozycore. The book is called Legends and Lattes. It's about a female orc fighter who has made her fortune diving dungeons and slaughtering monsters and decides to retire before she's killed. But the book opens when she reaches a new town, intent on opening a coffee shop. Apparently the whole novel is about her struggles to make the coffee shop successful. So far it's delightful.

[Mike]

Okay I need this and I'm definitely need the Belgian sci-fi.

You really do. I'll try to put up a more detailed, spoiler-free review later. But it's very good.

[Kyle]

Legends and Lattes- Travis Baldree. Great book. Like I posted before, I needed a break from the high-stakes fantasy epics in the Stormlight Archive series (and the fact that each book in the series is like 50 hours and I read the first four back to back). This was the perfect counterpoint. It focuses on Viv, a half-orc fighter/adventurer who's decided to retire from dungeon crawling and open up a coffee shop in a small town she's never been to. The whole book- it's only seven hours- is about the ups and downs she faces while trying to put together a staff (her Scooby Gang) and make the coffee shop successful. It's so great. If there isn't a genre of books called Fantasy Cozycore, there is now. That's what this book is. It's low stakes but heartfelt and earnest. The characters are great, the story is great-- I really just loved this book. And a bonus: the narration is fantastic. Even though I don't normally listen to books narrated by the author, Baldree gives a performance here that's among the best. So if you feel like settling in for a compelling story that's not going to raise your blood pressure, but still give you a satisfying journey. This is the one. High recommend.

[Kyle]

Silver Nitrate- Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I read (and loved) two other novels by Moreno-Garcia, both Mexican gothic horror novels (one was even titled Mexican Gothic). This is not a standard gothic horror novel. And honestly, it's a bit hard to review. To be clear, I liked it a lot. The author is wonderful and the story is well told, but there was still something that didn't quite connect with me like I wanted. Set in 1993 in Mexico, the book is based on our heroine, who is a 38 year old sound engineer for movies. She's very reminiscent of Daria- she's very dry humored, super intelligent and doesn't tolerate bullshit. Her lifelong friend, Tristan, an actor in the soaps that's lost his career, is the opposite- impulsive, seemingly shallow, eager to please. They get mixed up in trying to finish a cursed film that was started in the 60s and then bad shit happens. And it's super-refreshing to see a story about late 30-somethings that are just ordinary people. And there's a lot to the story about the latent racism and sexism in their 90s environment that's extremely well thought out and meaningful. And the whole novel is also a love-letter to classic Mexican horror cinema. But at times, Moreno-Garcia indulges in lecturing the reader about little facets of horror cinema that kind of took me out of the book. Times where I thought, "Okay. I get it. You know every tiny detail about this era. Let's move on with the story." It was just too heavy handled and those moments were too liberally sprinkled through the book. But still, it's a solid horror story with the types of characters we need to see more of (please- no more teens in peril who act like adults in peril). The one big draw back- and I won't fault the author for this- the narration was not good. And I've heard this narrator before and she's given great performances- but not here. You could actually hear her reading. Stopping between words mid-sentence. Readings that clearly have the wrong inflection. Twice, I heard the narrator's phone chime softly with a text tone. That stuff is just inexcusable. Every time it made me think, "That's the take you went with? We're not doing second takes here?" So bad. Again, that's not the author's fault, but it did detract from my experience significantly.

[Kyle]

Edgedancer- Brandon Sanderson. This novella is a side-story focused on Lift, one of the "tier 2" characters in the Stomlight Archive series (although she's one of my favorites). I won't really try to explain the whole premise, because if you haven't read the other books, it wouldn't make much sense. But Lift is a young girl (maybe 10?) who wished to the old magic that she'd never grow up. Or at least that's what she thought she was wishing for. In any case, perpetually young, she has the ability to make things grow (and as a byproduct, heal living creatures) and to make herself or anything she touches completely frictionless- so she can slide over nearly any surface like it was ice, and no one can grab her. She's a street urchin who found herself in the role of hero. This novella is just great, just like all the other books in the series. But what's unique about this one is the voice that Sanderson gives Lift is great and always authentically like a child would act, talk and behave. But none of this makes sense if you haven't read the other novels and don't know the basics: surge-binding; Radiants; Void Bringers; the Cosmere, etc. But trust me- I loved it. High recommend.

[Kyle]

Dawnshard- Brandon Sanderson. I promise that this will be the last Sanderson thing for a while. Mostly because it's the last thing in the Stormlight Archive to be published that I haven't read. It was great. The series is great. This novella (like Edgedancer) is a "short for Sanderson" story about Tier 2 and 3 characters. It was wonderful. Love the world. Love the series. Loved this book.

[Kyle]

Incarcerat- Garth Marenghi. It's hard to recommend. This is the second in the Terrotome series by Garth Marenghi, a fictional author first seen in the short-lived satire/camp TV show on the BBC called Garth Marenghi's Dark Place. It's so over the top, absurd and brimming with false machismo that it's hilarious and the author reads the audio book in the voice of the Garth Marenghi character- it's some of the best narration I've ever heard. The actual author, Matthew Holness, has said that the audio book is the intended way to consume these books. I can't really explain it. It's satire, it's comedy, it's also actual horror (Holness is a true horror afficiando who wrote and directed the indie horror Possum, which is spectacularly creepy and well done). But if you want to know if you'll like this book, go watch Dark Place (It'll take you two hours) and if you think that's funny, then definitely read this and the first book.

[Kyle]

Bookshops and Bonedust- Travis Baldree. The delightful sequel to Legends and Lattes (see entry above) is actually a prequel about how our orc-adventurer, Viv, gets injured by an undead beast and has to convalesce in sleep seaside town while her leg heals. She quickly befriends a ratkin at the local bookstore and, through a new Scooby Gang of wonderful characters, tries to figure out how to keep the bookstore from going under. Is this very similar to the narrative in the first one? Yup. Do I care? Nope. Once again, this foray into Fantasy Cozycore™ is a low stakes romp with real tension and purpose, but in a laid-back and comforting way. I absolutely love this and it's the perfect detox from six months of intense Sanderson series (although I still love those too). High recommend.

Fantasy Cozycore™ is a registered trademark of Braskycorp Enterprises. All rights reserved.

[Kyle]

The Woman in Me- Brittney Spears. And now for something completely different. This book was not well written, was repetitive and vacillated to extremes between "Brittney's voice" (things she clearly said in her own way, "I swear to god.") and the ghostwriters (which used flowery metaphors and quoted ancient poets). After I finished I looked it up and this book took three ghostwriters to get it to the five-and-a-half hour mark. It's basically a novella. But hear me out. I enjoyed it. It's easy to read this book and think Brittney Spears is just an airheaded idiot, but I think that's just wrong. By her own admission, her formal education was a truncated affair between shooting Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Star Search and her other entertainment gigs, which she'd been involved in since age seven or eight. But also by her admission, she suffers from mental illness. And to her credit, she owns the fact that she's made a lot of short-sighted, stupid choices in her life. And she also describes in detail how her mental illness and trauma informed those bad decisions. But here's why the book is really interesting: it's a no-holds-barred look at how abusive the entertainment industry is to women. And let's be honest, it's hard to imagine a more extreme example of that then Brittney Spears, who was forced into a conservatorship where her father controlled what she ate, when she used the bathroom and all of her communications (phone, text, in-person) with anyone. It's simply awful. She was essentially treated like an inhuman automaton that was forced to perform for years to fund the lifestyles of her parents. It's really, really terrible to hear it. And while her example is extreme, her point is that the industry does this to some extent to all women entertainers, and the abuse laid upon them is so much more extreme than the demands made on male entertainers (looking at you, JT). Anyhow, I'm glad I read it. It's short. I actually recommend it.

[Mike]

I miss reading (or being read to). But I just can't face another 40+ hours of Brandon Sanderson just to finish the first of 10 novels (6 of which are as yet unwritten). The Way of Kings is a good book so far (what very little I've heard so far), but the entirety of it intimidates the shit out of me right now.

I'm going to set it aside and get back into the swing of regular reading before I pick it up again.

[Kyle]

Nooooo! Take the journey! For me, I hit the same wall about a third of the way in. It wasn't that I wasn't enjoying it- it was how intimidating the commitment was. But then I thought, "That's dumb. If I'm enjoying it, I should keep listening." And then I listened to them all in six months. No regerts. HOWEVER- if you're not enjoying it, then stop. Just because I loved it, doesn't mean I expect everyone to.

Also- I found it very freeing to get away from my mindset of trying to read as many books as I could so I could add to my list. Before the Sanderson Saga of 2023, I found myself choosing shorter books that I didn't really prefer over others, but wanted to read because they'd be quick and easy. Going through the Stormlight Odyssey of 2023, I've shed that impulse and now just pick the book that appeals to me most in that moment despite length.

[Mike]

That's the point I'm getting to. Last year was a flurry of books under 9 hours. And I'm still feeling that pressure. I've got a couple of Audible credits, so I think I'm going to pick up a couple of mid length books I wanted but avoided last year and then go back to Sanderson again.

I've read zero pages in the last month, and it felt good for a bit, but I've gotta get back on the horse.



[By which I mean I need to start doing heroin again.]

[Eliahad]

*Smacks Mike*

[Mike]

*Smacks Mike*

Okay... smack is just as good

[Kyle]

Counting the Cost- Jill Duggar. Wow. Now I need a detox from traumatized celebrities. Jill Duggar, if you don't know, is the fourth oldest child of the Duggar family. The Duggars are those super-conservative, super-religious parents who had 18 kids and a show that ran forever on TLC (18 and Counting?). Jill does a great job of giving a candid view of what it was like growing up: (1) under such a restrictive, but she says loving, family; and (2) under the spotlight and demands of a very successful tv show. I won't get into all the details, but she addresses all the scandals including her brother's rape of her and her sisters, the illegal dissemination of the investigation and her interviews as a child surrounding that crime, and the struggles of realizing how she received no money for her involvement in the show, but was required to always be working for it. Throughout the book she lays open her struggles to reconcile her love for her parents and how she thinks they (and particularly her father) lied and deceived her about money. Just as an example, her father apparently was reporting income paid to her on her taxes (which the family accountant prepared) and then never actually gave her the money. Of course, the IRS came knocking on Jill's door to pay the taxes owed on that income that she never received. And her father refused to give it to her. It's all so crazy and unbelievable. But what's particularly revealing to me is watching the very human evolution of this person who comes to realize that many of the things she was raised to believe were actually just tools of control. Very good book. High recommend.

[Kyle]

The Eighth Detective- Alex Pavesi. Normally when I pick a murder mystery book, I know what I'm getting into- an Agatha Christie-like work that hopefully (but not always) has some new take or spin. This book is not that and is way, way better. This is the meta-deconstruction of murder mystery stories, while also being a murder mystery story. The framing device is this- an editor is meeting a mathematician who created a formula 40 years ago for the factors that all murder mysteries must contain, and then he wrote seven short stories that demonstrate the permutations of his formula. He self-published it 40 years before and only had 100 copies. He's going blind and the editor wants to republish his work, so she reads each story to him to discuss their impact and potential issues or inconsistencies in them. As she does this, another mystery with the author arises. So this is a murder mystery anthology, but it's so much more than just that. It's smartly written (so very smart) and, while it mercilessly breaks down murder mysteries into it's bare components, still tells great stories made up of those components. I was so very happy while reading this and it is definitely a high recommend.

[Kyle]

System Collapse- Martha Wells. Hey- it's Murderbot. I'm not going to go into a deep dive explaining why Murderbot is great. Read Mike's review or any of our reviews of the other half dozen Murderbot entries. I haven't read a Murderbot story in probably over a year, so this was like coming home. I very much enjoyed it, but when I finished it, I was left with a little sense of- "more of the same." I wasn't disappointed with the book at all, but I am left with a feeling that I'd like to see the protagonist develop more. And to be honest, this book seemed to be setting that up for a later story, but I didn't feel like it was fully realized here like I wanted. But it's really a minor quibble. It's Murderbot. It's great. Highly recommend.

[Kyle]

The Nineties- Chuck Klosterman. I really enjoyed Klosterman's absurdist short story collection. This is not fiction, and is not absurdist. It's a dissection of the 90s by someone close to my age who was a firm Gen Xer when it happened. The focus is on how it was a transitionary time that bridged the gap between pre- and post-internet society. It examines a multitude of topics: Mike Tyson biting off an ear; Grunge and the conflicting nature of Kurt Cobain; the Clinton presidency; the nature of live-scripted tv being forced on society; etc. I very much enjoyed it, and Klosterman has a great writing style that's well suited to this kind of thing. But for all his deep-seeded thoughts and exposition on the meaning of everything in the 90s, I still came away from it feeling a little bit embarrassed about enjoying it. It's like when all the Boomers raved about "We Didn't Start the Fire" as being such a great and important song. It wasn't. In fact it was just a list of "Hey! Remember that was a thing!" And it was kind of lame. I felt like this at the end of this book, and realized that my enjoyment of it was just hearing him talk about "Living Single" as being a precursor to "Friends" and thinking, "Oh yeah! Living Single! I used to love that show!" or "Oh man! I never thought about it, but I bet American Beauty really didn't age well!" In essence, I didn't learn anything. And I don't really think it made me think of things any differently than I already did. But that might be because this book wasn't meant for me. I am five months younger than Klosterman. I had the same white, suburban upbringing and college life that he did. So the insights that didn't really seem insightful would probably impact a millennial (particularly those that have taken to glamorizing the 90s) much differently. But I'm also being too critical. The book was smart. It was extremely well-written. And I enjoyed reading it a lot despite all my hemming and hawing here. So you know what? High recommend.

[Kyle]

Lone Women- Victor Lavalle. Victor Lavalle is one of my favorite new horror writers. The Devil in Silver is fantastic and The Ballad of Black Tom is simply brilliant. But this book simply didn't hit with me. The setting is a great one- wild west Montana when it was trying to get women to come to the state but was still mostly uninhabitable wilderness. Our protagonist is a black woman who leaves her primarily-black farming community in California for a new life homesteading in Montana. She leaves due to a supernatural burden that she is forced to carry with her. But the story fell apart for me for many reasons. While the first half of the novel focuses on our protagonist and is fixed in her perspective, halfway through the book it starts jumping to multiple perspectives. Which is fine, but then it does the thing that always throws me off and bothers me- it will jump perspective between characters mid-scene. It's always jarring to me when this happens and takes me out of the narrative. The other big problem I had is that the supernatural element (which I won't spoil) was a very heavy-handed metaphor that seemed ham-fisted. Lavalle is a great writer and I love his work, but this one did not resonate with me.

[Kyle]

Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism- Yanis Varoufakis. Be still my leftist heart! I loved this book, but a word of warning- it's a macroeconomics treatise on how capitalism has been supplanted by the new cloud-rent economy. So look- it's going to seem boring to some. And while I loved this book- an economics treatise can only go so high on my list. But hear me out! It's awesome! As another aside, it's read by the author himself... BUT HEAR ME OUT! He has the most glorious Greek accent and is a wonderful narrator. What a joy to listen to. Here's Varouakis's point- the old economy is dead. Where economies were once driven by capital and goods, we have now transformed a significant portion (and the portion that matters) into a rent economy. We haven't seen a rent-dominated economy since the feudal economies that preceded the domination of capitalism. Thus the title. And he doesn't mean rent for property (although that is part of it), but rather the rental of online access. Amazon, Google, Apple and the five big Chinese tech companies (think Alibaba, Tencent, etc.) now dominate our economy- all of which are "too big to fail." And when you look at how they generate their massive wealth (which then is concentrated into the pockets of the very few) it all has to do with being gatekeepers that charge huge fees to both sellers and consumers to enter their walled gardens. While some of them produce things (like the iPhone) the vast bulk of there wealth comes from producing nothing. It comes from allowing others the privilege to connect with their customers through their online portal. To a smaller, but still insidious extent, you have companies like YouTube, TikTok and twitter that rely on the public to volunteer their content to generate their wealth. I'm oversimplifying it for this summary, but it is fascinating. Varoukais makes this otherwise dry material approachable by writing the book as a letter to his father, using simple language, concepts and examples to demonstrate all the concepts that he's communicating. It's a very approachable and easy to consume format for such big ideas. In college, as an international affairs major, I obtained minors in economics and English (as well as psychology, history and sociology... *flex*) and remember taking a class in Marxist literature which I absolutely loved. This book sang to my soul reminding me of the joy that class brought me. While I think that Varoukais might overstate the impact of the cloud economy (but what do I know- he was the Greek finance minister for a while), and he admits his proposed solution is unobtainable in the real world, it's still so thought-provoking and amazing. High recommend if this is your cup of tea. I loved it.

[Kyle]

Mister Magic- Kiersten White. Kiersten White writes great stories about trauma. Both The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein and Hide are superb. Unsurprisingly, this book hits on many of the same issues of adults coming to terms with trauma they suffered as children. The book is about a group of kids who were the stars of a PBS-style show in the 90s called Mister Magic. Under mysterious circumstances the show suddenly ended and everyone's memory of it is hazy. And by everyone, I mean the entire public. There's a question on the internet whether the show ever really existed. But now, 30 years later, the cast is getting together to do a reunion podcast. As you might expect- bad and weird things happen. While I enjoyed this book, something misfired with me. You kind of figure out the whole book in the first 20% of it, and then you're just waiting for it to happen. And while I don't need every book I read to have a surprising twist, this was one of those experiences where the characters keep pondering what's going on, when it should have been patently obvious. A real pleasant surprise was, in the author's afterward, White reveals that this book is really about her struggle to escape from Mormonism and the pervasive effect it's had on her life. I wish I'd known that going in as I think it would have deepened the experience for me. All the same, I recommend the book.

[Kyle]

No One Will Come Back For Us- Premee Mohamed. Wow did this book happen at the right time. Two years ago I ordered a new RPG game, Cthulhu Awakens from Green Ronin Press, and 14 months after it was supposed to be delivered, it finally got here! I had totally forgotten that I'd ordered the game or that it was severely delayed. I mean, I knew all that, but didn't realize it would be arriving any time soon. So by sheer coincidence, I started this book the day before it arrived. And what a confluence of events! At the same time that my mind is racing with cosmic horror scenarios to run my party through, I'm listening to a book of short stories all set in a modern or sci-fi setting with bleak, Cthulhu elements driving the narrative. And it's great! The dreadful horror that you want with HP Lovecraft-inspired stories without the racism! All the stories are beautifully written and it was just a delight to read. High recommend!

[Kyle]

Our Share of Night- Mariana Enríquez; translated by Megan McDowell. My favorite book so far this year by a long shot, but it's a weird one. The basic premise is a generational story, set in Argentina, about a family of sorcerers that worship a Lovecraftian god. But it's less about that and more about two things: (1) trauma and how it devastates you; and (2) how we are prisoners in an unfair, punishing world. This book is just sweaty and visceral and unlike anything else I've ever read. The story spans 1960s, 80s and 90s. And throughout you are constantly aware of this pressing dread that is caused both by the circumstances of the narrative, but also by the oppressive conditions of living in Argentina through coups, dictatorships, democracies and a failed economy. I wish I knew more about recent Argentinian history because I think that the ups and downs of the characters and the story are locked in with the ups and downs of how great and horrible life in Argentina could be at different times. And let me give special mention to the translation- a good translation is hard. A beautiful translation is nearly impossible, but this was a beautiful translation. If I didn't know otherwise, I would have assumed this was written in English originally. Another point, an adage to writing is: "Show, don't tell." This novel completely ignores that and large swaths of the book are characters "telling" things and I loved it! This book was fantastic. High recommend.

[Kyle]

Don't Fear the Reaper- Stephen Graham Jones. This is the sequel to one of my favorite books from a couple of years ago, My Heart is a Chainsaw. And while I loved that book, this one... not so much. I just can't figure out who this book is for. Quick premise: we're back in Proof Rock, Idaho where the last massacre took place. Our hero, Jade Daniels has recently returned to town. In the middle of the worst blizzard ever, a serial killer escapes his prison transport and bad things happen in Proof Rock. There's a lot more to it and I'll have some spoilers at the end, but basically it's a "One Bad Night" story as people are brutally murdered and Jade and her Scooby Gang try to stop it. And if you thought the first book was an homage to horror movies, with the author peppering every paragraph, through the vantage point of our hero (who is a horror movie encyclopedia), with references and mentions to every horror movie you can think of. Well buckle up, friend, because this book turns it up to 11. And look, I've probably seen more horror movies than everyone who reads this thread combined. And even then, there were some nods in the narrative that I couldn't place. But here was my real issue with the book- this world makes no sense anymore. At least in Scream, there was one character who thought they were in a horror movie and they had to follow the rules of horror movie, even though no one else believed him. In this book, at least six characters believe they are in a horror movie and have to follow "final girl" rules. While it worked in the first book because it was just the main character, who was mentally imbalanced-- in this book it just took me out of it and seemed too ridiculous. Jones is a great writer with great ideas, but this book was so self-indulgent and niche. For a mass-marketed book, I have to believe that there's only a few dozen people that understand all of the horror references in this book. And that really is the focus of the book-- the "look at my love for horror movies" as opposed to "look at this cool story." Again, who is this written for? All that said, I still enjoyed it and will read the third book in the trilogy when it comes out. But I'm not sure I can recommend this to people unless you are true devotee of horror movies.

[Kyle]

Five Broken Blades- Mai Corland. Five killers- all of which who found themselves as killers for a multitude of different reasons- are brought together for the ultimate job: to kill the God-King of the land. Set in a fantastic feudal/low-magic/South Korean-like setting, the five characters are constantly trying to figure out who they can trust amongst them, or if they can trust anyone at all. And best of all- it's a heist! Well, it's a "kill the god king" heist- but I love it! It's also filled with tons of unrequited love and unfulfilled desire- which I also love. I will admit that the romance sections got a little too earnest for me, but it's a small quibble. My other small criticism is that I wish the world- which again is great- was a little less like what I'm used to in low-magic fantasy. But again, a small complaint. The characters are deep, developed and awesome. The plot keeps you on the edge of your seat as they barrel forward to this suicide mission. My one real complaint is that, even though this is a fully developed story on its own, it is also a huge set up for a second book. And while I'll definitely read the next book eagerly, the ending was a bit disappointing. All the same. Great book. Great writing. High recommend.

[Kyle]

It Was Always You- Sarah Stephens. Spoilers- but you shouldn't care because you should not read this book. If you've read my reviews before, you'll know that one of the types of books I dislike the most are the ones that are clearly being written to be turned into a movie. This was worse than that. It's a book written to be a Lifetime-Woman-In-Peril movie. Ugh. 20% of the way into the book, when the big death is introduced, you almost immediately can figure out the rest of the plot and the twist. In this case, our heroine is a college professor who grew up in terrible foster homes (remember that). She meets a doctor student who's a few years older than her and they fall in love. Then on their way to a remote retreat, he intentionally swerves into a tree trying to kill them both, but only succeeding in killing her. As she's recovering in the hospital, the cops name her as a suspect in his death, suspecting that she grabbed the wheel and did it intentionally. And it's at this point, you figure out the rest of the narrative and the twist at the end, even though you're only 20% of the way through the book. And the author doesn't tell you it, it's just that obvious. It's obvious that she's being set up by her shrink and her mother. Even at this early stage, it was obvious to me that her boyfriend was actually her biological brother who was working with his mother and the shrink. And then you frustratingly listen to the last 80% of the book while she discovers "clues" to the truth, but you're just sitting there thinking, "Yeah. No shit. Glad you finally figured it out." And the worst atrocity of this book was that, in the end, she's kidnapped by her mother and the shrink who then spend countless pages explaining the whole plot that you just read, like they're James Bond villains. It wasn't good. It was barely tolerable. Hard pass.

[Kyle]

The Life We Bury- Allen Eskens. This book started out so good. The premise is that our college-attending protagonist must write an outline and small portions of an original biography from one of his classes. His family life is garbage, so he can't use any of them. So he goes to an assisted living facility and meets Carl, an old man dying of pancreatic cancer who was paroled after 30 years on a conviction of raping and murdering his 14 year old neighbor. As you would expect, as our protagonist gets more details on Carl's alleged crime, he begins to suspect that the wrong person was convicted. The rest of the book is him digging deeper to find out what really happened. But the story is also about our protagonist's strenuous relationship with his drug-addicted mother who also "cares for" (i.e., houses and neglects) our protagonist's 18 year old autistic brother. The book weaves between both stories and is a dark examination of what motivates us to keep living. But then the last twenty percent of the book becomes a thriller. And that was really disappointing to me because I felt like it was unnecessary. I felt like the author had created this beautiful, introspective story and then for some reason (pressure from the publisher or his own internal pressure to make it more marketable) decided to add the "blood pounding" events at the end. It really took me out of the book. That being said, I still really enjoyed it. The book is wonderfully written. So I still recommend it.

[Kyle]

The Art of War- Sun Tzu. It was short so I'll try to keep this short. I remember my dad, who was in the air force, talking to me when I was a kid about how they taught this book in War College (a real thing) and how impressed he was on how relevant it remained, even though it was written hundreds of years ago. So I read it and I just don't get it. I fully recognize that part of "not getting it" is that I don't know anything about warfare or tactics, and maybe if I did it would land differently. But really all I got out of this book was- "To win a war: be smart; don't be impulsive; treat your soldiers properly." There's a bunch of different ways these ideas are iterated in the book, but that's really all I came away with. Sure, take the high ground and keep the sun at your back- I guess that sounds smart? There were ways to interpret the condition of the enemies from the fires their camps produced at night. Okay, okay. But really all the fundamentals were that you needed to make smart, deliberate decisions. Don't be stupid and don't be rash. That's certainly good advice, but as a layperson, that's really all I learned. And I kind of knew that to begin with.

[Kyle]

You Like it Darker- Stephen King. I've complained about how it's hard to read old Stephen King (and a lot of older fiction in general) because of the oppressive male gaze that saturates many of the stories. That being said, I love old man Stephen King. This is an anthology of "short" stories- some are really novellas- written recently by King. The male gaze issues aren't present- the female characters are not simply described as how they look- and even though there aren't many female characters (or many characters at all), the ones included have full agency. Also gone is the "in the end it's all about god" themes that ran through his middle life material. These are stories- many about older people (mostly men)- who are contemplating purpose and their journey through life. Even the one story about a 24 year old finds the main character having suffered through the Vietnam war and is scarred and broken- not unlike the seniors and middle agers that populate his other stories. As with any anthology, some of the stories aren't great-- I think there were really only two I was indifferent to-- but the ones that are great? They're really great. I don't want to give anything away, but I will say that I really enjoyed this collection and it's good to see King, who I think is in his mid-70s, is writing some of his best stuff right now. High recommend.

[Mike]

A Desolation Called Peace -- Arkady Martine
I read part 2 of Arkady Martine's incredible Teixcalaan duology back in January, and it blew me away. It is a politically oriented space opera, and it's amazing. I loved this one even more than the first. Kyle had the opposite experience, but both of us agree that both books are amazing. If you like well thought out politics in a scifi setting, you can hardly do better than this. High recommend.

[Mike]

I Who Have Never Known Men -- Jacqueline Harpman
I finished this one right after the last one back in January and said:

a real thinky 30-year old Belgian sci-fi novel that was just recently translated to English from the original French. It is quiet and reserved and absolutely stunning. But I have no brainpower to explain further.

Fantastic book. Very subdued... the slowest of slow burns. We follow the life of a girl on a (prison planet?) They are in a bunker because of (something horrible?) and are not allowed to leave. And there's guards and weird procedures, but this is about peoples roles in society and especially focuses on gender roles and expectations. It's a very feminist piece. And there are other themes, some of which I am not clever enough to puzzle out. Lots of exploration,but very few direct answers, and even when there are huge reveals, I'm still left with more questions.

Try it. It's very short.

[Mike]

The 22 Murders of Madison May -- Max Barry
Okay, it only took me six months, but I finally read another book. This is a sci-fi thriller about people who can move to different worlds in the multiverse. So that fact plus the title means it's no surprise that a killer is moving from world to world and killing versions of Madison May in every world. There's travelers with their own agenda trying to stop the killer, and an unsuspecting protagonist who gets swept up in the conflict.

It's good. It's really really good. The plotting is excellent. The science is good. The motivations all work. I usually expect that I will have to allow a little hand-waving and suspension of disbelief with a multiple worlds or time travel story, but not here. I had potential objections throughout, but as the details were all revealed, it was clear the author was several steps ahead of me. AND it all wrapped up in a very satisfying way that I absolutely did not see coming.

[Phoebe]

Frankenstein
Mary Shelley

I hadn't read this for decades! It was completely different than I remember it. Just enough similarity to be sure it was the same book, but reading it with the eyes of a teenager versus today? Wow. It makes me wonder if I shouldn't go back and reread a bunch of other things! Anyway, it's a quick read and it's just as awesome in 2024 and I highly recommend it if you're looking for something unexpected and quick but dazzling. The places I find horror in it today are not the places I used to find it. I tried to read it without thinking much about the author herself, but it's hard because she seemed like such a tragic figure and amazingly was a teenager herself when coming up with this! Learning more about the biography of her husband has wrecked whatever enjoyment I might have had of his poetry. I'm very inconsistent in this matter though: some authors I just can't square with their biography to the point that I don't enjoy the work anymore, and others I'm somehow able to put aside terrible details of the biography to get some important things out of the work. Irrational but I don't know why it works the way it does.

[Kyle]

How to Become a Darklord and Die Trying- Django Wexler. Spoiler free review. Let me start by saying that I loved this book, but it comes with a bit of a caveat. Let me explain the awesome premise first. A 2020s girl of undetermined age (maybe 20?) is stuck in a time loop where she wakes up in a fantasy D&D world where she's told she's the chosen one and has to defeat the evil Darklord. But everytime she tries and fails, ususally by a horrible death, she wakes back up where she started and is told that she's the chosen one. After 1,000 years of trying and failing to fulfill her duties as the chosen one, she wakes up this last time and decides: "Screw it. I'm going to try to become the Darklord this time." None of this is a spoiler. It's all explained in the first ten pages of the book. The novel follows her choice to try the "other path." The world is great- every D&D fantasy character you want is here and encountered as she travels across the land of "wildlings" to see if it will be different this time. My one problem with the book is this: the main character is Harley Quinn. And look, it makes sense, right? You've lived and died hundreds of times over a thousand years and always ended up in failure. So obviously your character is going to be slightly insane and have a nonchalant attitude to death and consequences. However, it got just the slightest bit grating mid-way through the book. That being said, when I was almost half-way through, I thought I had the book figured out, and knew that there was a "twist" coming at the end that I had also figured out. I was hoping for more character development that I wasn't seeing. But you know what? I was TOTALLY WRONG. And it was awesome. This is a cool fantasy adventure unlike any I'd ever read before.

And here's another thing for audio book lovers- Hands down the best narration I've ever heard. Hands down. The narrator went so far over and above what we're used to and elevated this book to a whole different level. It was superb.

[Mike]

I'm not reading the review until I read the book. It's coming up shortly on my reading list.

[Akiva]

I just got around to reading "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro. Wow. It's superb.

[Mike]

Awesome! I have heard so many good things about Kazuo Ishiguro, but the one thing of his that I've read (The Buried Giant) just did not work for me, so I've been hesitant to try another one. Maybe I shall.

[Akiva]

I heartily recommend it.

[Mike]

Light Years from Home -- Mike Chen
Leaving aside his books on licensed properties (which I haven't read yet... Star Wars, Star Trek, etc) Mike Chen is always good for solid sci-fi hooks, great story and action, strong and complex characters (with great Asian representation), and a story that's ultimately about family and relationships.

Light Years from Home is no different, except this time, the focus was far more on the family. I really wanted more of the sci-fi front and center. And I felt like some of the family dynamics were being dragged out a bit. I knew where things were going, so I kept getting impatient to see it played out. And in mostly stuck to the script in my head.

Still a good book, but whether it was expectations or something else, this is my least favorite of his.

[Mike]

How to Become a Darklord and Die Trying -- Django Wexler
What Kyle said! This book is great! You love fantasy roleplaying. You like fun. You'll like this. I love the structure and lore of this world. I want a tabletop RPG that captures all of this. I want to live in this game world.

I had the same issues with the main character that Kyle did, but for me they only bothered me for just a little past the first chapter.

Eagerly awaiting Dark Lord Davi Book 2.

[Mike]

Goddam Spotify! I'm looking at this whole list of audiobooks included with Premium, and they got TONS of stuff I've wanted to read. Included with Premium! I read the Dark Lord book, and then moved right into an Adrian Tchaikovsky joint I've been wanting to read forever, and it quits an hour in. Spotify only has 15 hours of reading "included with Premium". After that, you can "top up" at a rate of $13 for 10 hours.

Oh well. At least it means I get about 1 free book a month, but what a shitty was to dole out audiobooks

[Kyle]

Angel of Indian Lake- Stephen Graham Jones. Book 3 in the Jade Daniels/Proof Rock trilogy. I had issues with Book 2. Book 3 had all the same issues (the constant horror references, the seemingly coincidental horrors that all happen here, etc.). But as I got into the book... it all clicked for me. And you know what I said?



Yeah. It's a horror story about people acting like they're in a horror movie. And it works. It is a self-indulgent love letter to horror movies. But I love the indulgence. It's also just a great horror story that ties up all three books so beautifully in the end.

I'm sorry I doubted Stephen Graham Jones. As with the other books, I don't know if I'd recommend this one if you're not a fan of horror movies. But I loved it.

[DMDarcs]

I started recording myself reading the Dragonlance Chronicles. I plan on posting this in a audio only format somehow. Possibly YouTube with any options for monetization or searching turned off. I plan on giving personal links to my kids.

[Tahlvin]

I started recording myself reading the Dragonlance Chronicles. I plan on posting this in a audio only format somehow. Possibly YouTube with any options for monetization or searching turned off. I plan on giving personal links to my kids.

How do they hold up? I think I tried re-reading them a few years ago for the first time in decades and couldn't get very far. But I don't remember if that was because they didn't hold up well, or if it was because I just had too much other stuff going on in life.

[DMDarcs]

How do they hold up?

I will let you know. I've only read them once before. I remember them being ok, not the most interesting.

[Kyle]

The Salt Grows Heavy- Cassandra Khaw. So a mermaid and a plague doctor in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world discover a village of feral children led by three saints. And every single one of the characters is a monster. That's the premise of this novella. I have a mixed relationship with Cassandra Khaw's work. I think she's a brilliant horror writer whose ideas are novel and compelling. She's writing horror unlike anything else I've read. Her Food of the Gods novellas are so great. But she always chooses a unique voice to tell her stories and sometimes they're weird, alienating choices. This book is written in an almost-poetic literary style, and I wish I understood that from the beginning because I would have appreciated the first half more. As it was, I found myself irritated in the first half, thinking that this book was overwritten and trying too hard. I mean, it used a half-dozen words I don't know, and I went to law school. But then half-way through, I got it. The point was that this is tragic, beautifully poetic fairy tale. And once that clicked for me, I was all in. This is really a deep-felt story about monsters and love and isolation. The end really resonated with me. I just wish I was more open-minded when I started it, because I think I would have appreciated it even more. All the same, I loved it. High recommend.