I grew up watching OG Scooby-Doo, so i was drawn to the title and potential premise of this title. Early into it, I was drawn in by the depth beyond just a Scooby rip off.
There was a time when all one had to do was hot glue some fake brass gears onto something and it was steampunk. A time when all one had to do was say they were writing a steampunk story and they were given multibook contract, just because steampunk. There was plenty of good work coming out, such as Girl Genius; there were also plenty of cheap gears glued to dead bugs. It is easy for me, from distance and with no skin in the game to comment. I don't have books published, I don't have a name known beyond my incredibly small circle. Still, one can tell quality and one can see when it was just knocked together to grab the latest trend. Needless to say, I didn't finish this book. It never took off, the loud parts were quiet and the quiet parts were loud, so to speak.
I seem to be drawn to books about people looting battlefields, as a premise, even as that only happens at the beginning and never after. I enjoyed this book, I enjoyed the growth of the character, much better than Giant Thief.
I imagine this was a single book and the publisher wanted it to be two books, and so it was made into two books. The second finished the story and I enjoyed it as much as the first.
I first learned of T. Kingfisher on Bluesky as she was skeeting about harassing a disgraced Hugo division head at last years awards, deservedly. I was short on what to read next and looked up her stuff, as I hadn't read anything by her before, and I'm well pleased that I did. I enjoyed this book and appreciated it's slow burn romantic tension and pacing.
The first of the "New Management" and not bad. Interesting take on things, though rather relishing in violence in a way that I didn't care for. Probably the last of these I will bother with, I'm just not interested in these characters.
This is a new one for me. Not a very recent book. I have been going through the Reactor backlog and this stuck out as something a little different for me right now. And, it was tough. Not a likable main character. Think I might write it up compared to another, similar book.
I wasn't able to get into this one. Probably partly because the other filled a need, in time and space. This one, I just didn't click with it the same. Maybe I will revisit in the future.
It was good enough, I suppose. The last of the Laundry Files proper, it seems. I wasn't enamored of the characters and especially not of how most were treated in the end.
This is the last one of my reread, after this it's all new to me. I thought I remembered the very ending of the book, like last paragraph or two. I did not remember correctly. It was nice to read these and not feel like a slog, knowing what would come next.
By this point my anxiety was almost off the charts, the way it echoes, or even almost foretells the horrors that are occurring in the U.S. right now. Not this one alone, rather the series to this point, these last few books, up to The Labyrinth Index.
I was not pleased reading this. I was hoping for a space Indiana Jones, instead I got something else, a fictional non-fiction-esque. It was a history of the sci-fi universe, with so many names I had no idea most of the time what was happening. As well, characters out of the blue doing things that made no sense. I don't think I will continue this series.
First book of the Laundry Files, which I originally read several years ago. I saw that there was a new book in the series recently released and decided to revisit from the beginning. This book is terrific.
I was reading the forward to Atrocity Archives, written by Ken MacLeod and wasn't quite ready to dive in yet to the Laundry Files. So, i looked up Ken MacLeod and read the first of the Corporation Wars series. I enjoyed it and may go back for the rest. Pretty heavy though, at the beginning of 2025.
Mistborn is just one of those series that one cannot escape from if one reads Reactor(formerly Tor). So, I gave it a try. It started well enough, normally such world building would have put me off, somehow it just worked. Then it dragged on and I got bored.
I came to this after reading about Paul's second book and thought I might try it. I was pleasantly pleased by the story and the love letter it was to pulp fiction of yore.
I was looking for more like DCC and tried some various LitRPG. This one was pretty good. Basically comfort reading, which is not something I have really done before. It was comforting and that was good.
I was searching for "Author Steve Roland" as referenced in DCC and found it. After finishing DCC, I tried this out. It wasn't my cup of tea. I didn't finish it.
I tried this one at some point in the midst of DCC and just couldn't. I didn't have anything else for fallback and had just failed to read Empires. This ended up being so good. Reminiscent of A Psalm for the Wild-Built and like that book, very good. A good way to end 2024.
I tried. Chasing DCC is a hard thing to follow. This was just too heady for me, too much Aztlan, that I just couldn't. This book takes more thought than I could muster, which is on me, not the book.
Just, oof. This one was heavy. It was also the last available as of my reading it. And it left a hole in me. I invested so much headspace to DCC. Just an amazing series. I wanted to write a comprehensive review, I didn't have the headspace for that, so it will have to wait.
My brother-in-law mentioned that he was reading this and I needed a quick break. I did not want to burn out on DCC. This was good. It felt like the idea started with the throw away joke about the eyebrows and went from there. Rather by the numbers, enjoyable.
I tried to read this as, it was fine, it started well. I just didn't want to stop reading DCC and didn't really care that much. I did not finish and don't know that I'll come back to it.
This was excellent. I was drawn in immediately and enjoyed it immensely. Then it was suddenly over, and I was not ready. Now I have to wait for the sequel.
It's pretty intense, it's one thing to play it, or watch it. Reading it adds a level of viscera that becomes very heavy. Then I looked up and I was on book four.
Enjoyable in it's own right. The writing was of a time, stilted, dry language, it worked though. The elements were of a time, trying to predict a future by extrapolating off the present. I was expecting things as I read, predictable tropes, and was surprised when my expectations were defied.
How to Train a Happy Mind: A Skeptic's Path to Enlightenment
This is not bad, so far. I am not ready for it yet, though. Too much else in front of it, so it is basically on hold. So on hold I forgot I was reading it.
I might come back to it, for now, I have forgotten about it.
NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity
I was introduced to this book by an outpouring of remembrances and sympathies on Bluesky when Steve Silberman passed recently. The book has been so interesting and so important for me as I navigate my own neurodivergence.
Good, important, and hard to read when you live it. As such, another that is unfinished and set aside.
I started this and then I stopped, as I was certain I had read it before. I can't seem to find that I have, though. I tried again to read it, and just wasn't into it, not the right time. So, indefinite hold.
I devoured the first two in this series. I was so taken with the new way of presenting such old tropes. I was waiting for this one for a long time, then I guess I forgot, as it was out for a minute before I remembered it. Hard start, as I couldn't remember what had happened before, and a lot happened.
This was good, of course. I need to revisit the first two, now.
This was a short novel. It was a lot though. The concepts were very interesting, the cultural world building was alien to me. Still, I am very glad to have read it for all that. Bad review, don't know what to say.
The mix of elements, angels, noir detective, future setting, quantum mechanics, does not seem like it should work on paper. Yet it was a rather well done tale.
Was an interesting follow to Line of Polity, could almost have been a prequel. Got a bit chaotic in it's telling and what I felt it was trying to tell. Didn't love it at the end, felt it more of a slog.
This was so bad. So, so bad. I had been practicing it and wanted a refresher. I did not learn it from the book, initially. It was such a poor effort to create an allegorical tale. A simple book, with simple instructions, maybe even just a blog post would have sufficed. Needless to say, I didn't make it very far before I gave up.
I jumped straight into this one after finishing Gridlinked. Kind of a slog, still alright though. In some ways comparable to Altered Carbon series, just a little less brutal, though still very kill everyone, mercilessly.
I did not pick this up knowing the politics the author would become a part of. I saw it in the library app and it sounded interesting. Then it got weirdly synchronistic. Then he got nominated for republican VP a few days after I started reading. I did not finish it, I got enough out of it. Not a flattering book.
This is one of those books that I should have read 30 years ago. All things in their time. I didn't entirely finish this, I read enough to satisfy, though.
I've read this so many times. I can only get so far before I tire of it. I like aspects of it. I love it as a whole. I have just been here too many times before I only visit my favorite parts.
