Books

I read…a lot. Here’s where I ramble about books and printed media.

📚 A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick

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1/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

For a book involving drug addicts suffering paranoia and breakdowns and generally being kind of horrid to each other, it was actually quite a bit funnier than I expected it to be. (I’d never seen the film, so had no preconceived notions of what to expect.) It definitely has Dick’s touch (not least in how the women are treated, which tends not to be one of Dick’s strengths), but there were many of the rambling, somewhat stream-of-consciousness ridiculous conversations among the drug-addled roomies that were perhaps a little too relatable from my less-than-responsible 20s.

Me holding A Scanner Darkly

2023 Reading Round-Up 📚

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Every year, I set myself a goal of reading at least 52 books over the course of the year — an average of one a week. This year I made it to 74 books. Here’s a quick (?) overview…

2023 Reading Goal of 52 books met! 142% (74 books) Fantastic! You've exceeded yoru reading goal by 22 books.

The trend of the last few years holds true, with another year almost entirely dedicated to escapist fluff. Surprised? I’m not.

Non-fiction: Just two books, counting for 3% of my reading. One was a nice behind-the-scenes look at The Wrath of Khan, the other was an excellent memoir by Deafblind author Elsa Sjunneson. I highly recommend Being Seen, especially if you have any interest in recognizing and combatting ableism.

Non-genre-fiction (where “genre” is shorthand — though, not very short, if you include this parenthetical — for science-fiction, fantasy, and horror): Absolutely nothing this year. Everything that wasn’t non-fiction was “genre” fiction.

Quality genre fiction: About the same as last year; primarily the Philip K. Dick nominees and my Hugo project, with a few others added here and there.

As usual, I read all of the books nominated for this year’s Philip K. Dick awards. However, I’m no longer posting my thoughts or review on the nominees, as starting this year I am the coordinator for the Philip K. Dick award ceremony at Norwescon. While I have no input into selecting any of the nominees or the eventual winner, I don’t want to give any appearance of impropriety. So, I’ll just read and enjoy each year’s nominees, and you all will have to make your own judgements as to your favorites.

I added nine books to my Hugo reading project, bringing me up to 65% of the way through. This year’s selections were all good, without any I didn’t enjoy, but the surprises were Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Vor Game and Barrayar (and the other books in that series I read to make sure I got the whole story); I’d never read them before, and likely wouldn’t have picked them up based on the cover artwork and blurbs, but have ended up really enjoying the series and am looking forward to reading more.

Fluff genre fiction: Unsurprisingly, this once again ended up being the strong majority of this year’s reading. Lots of Star Trek novels, with a few detours here and there. And given everything that was going on in 2020 2021 2022 2023, it was very nice to have a bookshelf full of options that wouldn’t take a whole lot of brain power for me to disappear into.

One change this year is that I read a lot more digitally than I usually do. While I generally prefer physical books, there are times when digital books come in handy, or where they’re the only real option. In the first case, when we went on vacation this year, it was easy to bring along a small library on my iPad; in the second case, I’ve started actually reading the two SF/F magazines I subscribe to (Uncanny and Clarkesworld), both of which are distributed digitally.

Finally, Storygraph’s stats on my year’s reading tell me:

A graph of my reading over the year tracking number of books and number of pages. January, August, and September are the busiest months; March, April, and June are the slowest.

On to 2024!

📚 Fool Moon by Jim Butcher

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74/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️

About the same as the first in the series; not mindblowing, but entertaining enough. Between that and enough people I know recommending that I keep going, I likely will. Though I do have to say — I like breasts as much as most people who are attracted to breasts do, but even so, Dresden/Butcher mentioning every female character’s breasts (often bare, as this book has a lot of werewolves shifting between wolf and human form) at every opportunity had me rolling my eyes a bit more each time.

Me holding Fool Moon on my iPad

📚 Uncanny Issue 56 edited by Lynne M. Thomas, Michael Damian Thomas, Monte Lin, and Betsy Aoki

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73/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This issue I really enjoyed Mary Robinette Kowal‘s “Marginalia” and Alex Jennings‘s “Lest We Become Posessed”, a review of Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror, co-edited by Jordan Peele and John Joseph Adams, which has been added to my “keep an eye out for” list.

Me holding Uncanny Issue 56 on my iPad

📚 Foreign Foes by Greg Brodeur and Dave Galanter

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72/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️

It felt rather rushed and busy for a good portion of the book, as there were several different threads going on that the authors switched among rather quickly, and while the details took some time to come to light, the basic mystery as to what was going on wasn’t all that mysterious, being obvious to the reader (if not the characters) within the first couple chapters. Not a stinker, but not a standout, either.

Me holding Foreign Foes.

📚 Storm Front by Jim Butcher

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71/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️

According to my reading history, I read this 13 years ago. I have no memory of this, even while reading it this time; and after reading it, I’m not terribly surprised that I don’t remember it. Not that it’s bad, it’s just…not really my thing, I guess? I’ve enjoyed urban fantasy, and noir, and noir urban fantasy, so I don’t think it’s the parts, but they’re not summing up as well as they have in other books I’ve read. It was entertaining enough that I’ll likely read at least another one or two in the series to see how it progresses; this is a first book, after all, and the series has gone on long enough and has enough fans that there’s a chance I’ll find later installments more engaging.

Me holding Storm Front on my iPad.

📚 Debtors’ Planet by W.R. Thompson

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70/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This one surprised me in good ways. I wasn’t optimistic at first, with its focus on Ferengi, who can be annoying (especially in the pre-Quark days), and with it bringing back an (intentionally) annoying character from the show. But it handled both of these elements surprisingly well; the primary Ferengi antagonist is a little more thoughtful than most of the era, and the returning character is actually given some depth and is able to use his traits and quirks in ways that advance the story. Add in some amusing Worf/Riker bits and Wesley actually being treated like a worthwhile character as he forms a friendship with an alien ensign, and this (notwithstanding some confusion over how the Federation handles money and an “offscreen” sexual assault that wasn’t really necessary) is definitely an above average entry in the series.

Me holding Debtors' Planet

📚 The Rising by James Doohan and S.M. Stirling

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69/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️

If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to read military SF about a Scotch/Irish former fighter pilot who turned spaceship engineer after being wounded and losing a hand, written by a former soldier and pilot turned actor who played a Scotch spaceship engineer after being wounded and losing a finger, then this is definitely the book for you! Aside from the rather amusing list of similarities between Doohan and his protagonist, and the curiosity of reading SF co-authored by Doohan, it’s fairly standard military SF, combining interstellar war with a “who’s the saboteur” mystery.

Me holding The Rising.