Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Started: 7/3/21
Finished: 7/5/21
It’s a fantasy, it’s a mystery, it’s a contemplation of a lonely life, and it’s a really nice book.
magic
The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow
Started: 4/17/21
Finished: 4/26/21
I liked, but didn’t love, her first novel, but I had heard really good things about this one. Of course, then it took me a while to get into this, but once I did, I was completely hooked. Cried twice. Good stuff, and better than her first book.
Battleground by Jim Butcher
Started: 4/3/21
Finished: 4/9/21
Book 17 in The Dresden Files, which I have been re-reading via audiobook for the last year or so. I probably should have been listing the last several as new books for me, but I’ve been lazy about it. Anyway, I’m enjoying these books more than ever, particularly the later ones, at least partly because he really dialed back the low-key sexist descriptions of women THANK GOD.
Also, something in this latest book made me cry, and there was a bonus short story at the end that made me SOB. Jim Butcher has made me yell in annoyance, shout at unexpected events, laugh many times, but he’s never made me cry before.
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher
Started: 2/8/21
Finished: 2/12/21
T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon when she’s writing kids’ books) is one of the guests of honor at this convention I’m (virtually) attending this weekend, so I figured I’d read her next to most recent book before then. I’ve read three before this and loved them, and I love this. I love it when I find a new favorite.
When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey
Started: 1/30/21
Finished: 2/3/21
I love Sarah Gailey and everything they’ve written. This is their first YA book – it’s about friends with magic, and it starts dark. The main character is pretty insecure ways that feel real even though they’re not how any of my insecurities work. I’m not totally crazy about how the magic works. I mean, it’s not explained and I don’t think it has to be, but the friends seem to be so convinced that this one thing will work, and I don’t know why they would think that. Except it’s likely they are trying to convince themselves it’ll work. Anyway, I liked it, I enjoyed it, and a lot of things about it were really good. I’m just not sure it’s really good.
The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton
Started: 8/28/20
Gave up: 8/30/20
It feels familiar at the beginning, and I wasn’t in the mood for another same-old story, but I’d heard good things about it and the premise is fascinating, so I kept going. Then there were hints of something really dark and awful going on that the heroine is going to find out, and okay, I’m interested, but she doesn’t follow up! Or she’s more interested in the same-old! Are you kidding me? And then I found out that it’s the first in a series, so I’m not even going to find everything out by the end of the book, and you know, I’m making up my mind to quit reading as I’m typing this.
Yup, I just read a few more pages and then skimmed a few more and NOTHING IS HAPPENING. Next!
Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Started: 8/15/20
Finished: 8/22/20
I wanted to love this book because I loved the one before it, but I was SO confused by it. It seemed to be rewriting the first book in flashback, with different characters and different events, and while that does get explained, it was confusing, not gripping. And then at around 70%, it got 1000 times more fun for me, for reasons I will not explain because spoilers, but that wasn’t enough. And then it ended, and what? I don’t know what happened. I don’t understand the world this series is set in. I love the character of Gideon from the first book, and I really feel for Harrow in both books, and I WILL read the third book because I just have to know, but I was disappointed not to love this one as much as the first.
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djeli Clark
Started: 7/16/20
Finished: 7/18/20
Supernatural detectives in a supernatural version of 1912 Cairo with sky trams and djinn and women’s suffrage as a backdrop. I would read a whole series about this.
City of Lies by Sam Hawke
Started: 7/5/20
Gave up: 7/5/20
First in a new series that could be really good, but again, I had formatting issues I can’t get past. It’s a PDF with a watermark across every page that says something like “DO NOT REPRODUCE OR WE WILL COME AFTER YOU”. The watermark is okay, but a PDF on a Kindle is annoying because I have to keep resizing the pages. I tried to convert it to a readable Kindle format (Amazon tells you how), and that process put the words from the watermark into the text of the book. But not in one sentence on each page, no. No, it broke up the watermark sentence and inserted the individual words into the text, making the actual book unreadable because it made no sense. I would like to read this book, but I’ll get it from the library or something. I’m not going to get it done in time for Hugo voting.
Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee
Started: 7/5/20
Gave up: 7/5/20
13-year-old goes to space to rescue her older brother, and I am not in the mood. The writing is good, the premise is good, but the formatting on my Kindle is atrocious (it’s a converted PDF), and the mind of this 13-year-old is not as comfortable to live in as the mind of the 12-year-old wizard was (from my last book). I’d like to come back to this later, but I’m not going to finish it in time for Hugo voting.
Minor Mage by Ursula Vernon
Started: 7/2/20
Finished: 7/5/20
Young wizard goes on an adventure! Light, quick read, good characters.
Deeplight by Frances Hardinge
Started: 6/23/20
Gave up: 6/25/20
YA, possibly Lovecraftian (at least insofar as it includes monsters in the ocean deeps), with an Artful Dodger-like main character, but it didn’t grab me. It seems perfectly readable, and maybe I’ll go back to it, but I have a limited amount of time to read Hugo-nominated books, and I don’t want to spend time on this one.
The Winter of the Witch
Started: 6/5/20
Finished: 6/10/20
Last in the Winternight trilogy, with a really satisfying ending. I LOVED this trilogy.
The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden
Started: 5/29/20
Finished: 6/4/20
Sequel to The Bear and the Nightingale, which I raved about two years ago. It came out last year, and I have the third book already, so I am behind. I flew (using my current definition of “flew”) through this – it’s so good.
Magic For Liars by Sarah Gailey
Started: 5/23/20
Finished: 5/29/20
I love Sarah Gailey (they are responsible for my hippo cowboy stories), so I am so glad to say I REALLY enjoyed their first novel. Magic noir!
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
Started: 4/12/20
Finished: 4/19/20
I’ve read a couple of this author’s YA books and liked them a lot -they were a pair of heist stories, and I always like a good heist. This one…I’m not quite halfway and seriously considering quitting. Premise: the secret societies at Yale are all real and do real magic, and a young woman who can see ghosts is recruited to the watchdog society. It was a little slow to start, but it was going fine once I got into it, and then there was a really horrifying scene made so much worse for the fantasy elements, and shortly after that there was a really gross scene, and I’m just not sure. It’s on the horror side of fantasy – not creepy-scary, but maybe a bit body-horror scary. Maybe I’ll see how I feel about it in the morning.
Update: I kept reading and found I couldn’t put it down. Nothing else as horrifying or gross happened and the action picked up. It ended with a setup for the next book, but it’s not a cliffhanger and could work as a standalone.
Update 6 months later: I was reminded of the horrifying scene, and I am horrified all over again and NOT in a good way. I wish I hadn’t remembered it. I don’t feel good about this book. Definitely not for me.
How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse by K. Eason
Started: 4/1/20
Finished: 4/12/20
I thought this was a standalone, and I was excited to recommend it to you all you people who don’t want to start a new series when only the first book is out…but then I found out it’s the first book in a new series, and it’s the only one out. But it’s so good! Fun, funny, magic and sci-fi combined.
Also, new update: there are only supposed to be two books, and the second one is due out in October of this year.
The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater
Started: 3/27/20
Finished: 4/1/20
The last book in the psychics/witches/preppy school boys/etc. series that I like entirely too much. It’s about time something happened. I mean, stuff has been happening in all of the other books to move the story forward, but this thing they’ve been working toward since the first book is FINALLY HAPPENING.
The ending is good, it’s both unexpected and expected, and I feel like it happened a little too quickly. I’d realize I was 80% done and think there’s NO WAY it can be done in only the pages remaining. But it was, and it was good and yay.
Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh
Started: 3/26/20
Finished: 3/27/20
A Green Man story, but completely different from any other Green Man story I’ve ever read. Really good, and it has a sequel…which isn’t out yet, but it’s due out in June! And there are only supposed to be two, so anyone worried about getting stuck in the neverending wait that comes with a new series can stop worrying.
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Started: 3/19/20
Finished: 3/26/20
I LOVED this book. It’s super-weird, but the main character is hilarious (I laughed a LOT and had to force myself to stop reading parts out loud to John), and I LOVED it. So excited to read the next one when it comes out (THIS SUMMER!!). Queer necromancers in space. With swords. And hilarity. And death (because necromancers). Also lots of drama – despite the funny character, it is NOT a comedy. I got this from the library, but I need to own it. And re-read it.