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A short but oh so great collection, including the historic poem which gives the book it's name. In this reread, I discovered that I liked the penultimate poem ('Wild Orphan') almost as much as Howl itself. A nice read to finish up the year.

Finished creating a list of books from Reactor Magazine Reviewers’ Choice: The Best Books of 2025. There's some pretty good stuff here, including this book.

On SFBA.club, the list can be found here, and I made sure the books have high-res covers and descriptions. YMMV on other servers. However, a lot of the books hadn't been added anywhere yet, so there's a decent chance the data I entered is copied to servers where accounts follow me.

I picked this up after skimming similar books and was disappointed by the general lack of content. Most of it could be summed up in a few pages. I stopped reading actively around the 10% mark and skimmed the rest, realizing it's more about creating a space for deep work so you can be another cog in the machine than finding purpose and enjoyment in creating something exceptional by locking in and putting in the hours.

This is a one of a kind audiobok and a story that probably doesn't work as well without the audio element. The music and singing which is integral to the story elevated the whole experience. Quite short so worthwhile to try out even if you're skeptical.

This story is wild. A look at the experience of getting raised in one of the survivalist homes.

I'd like to note that there's nothing inherently wrong with this classic. Tolkien paved the way for high fantasy and has inspired so many phenomenal works of fiction, from novels to films to tabletop RPGs. But the narrative style of The Lord of the Rings is dry and was difficult to engage with after the hobbits left the Shire. I respect Tolkien and am certain my stories would be vastly different without his influence, but I'd much rather watch the condensed and visually striking films than slog through another thirty hours of text. I understand the draw and loyalty of Tolkien's biggest fans, he simply isn't for me. After struggling through the text for weeks, I finally called it at the 25% mark.

Another book that I put in Calibre over a decade ago that I'm finally getting to now.

Hatcher & Rogan investigate the killing of a man in a Manhattan penthouse, probably something to do with the tryst that a leftover condom indicates happened. And then they also get the cases of the murder of the roommate of a prostitute and the murder of a different prostitute. Because this is a crime novel, we know all the cases will eventually be connected.

While I found the book better than the second Ellie Hatcher novel, Angel's Tip, 212 falls firmly in the category of average. Nothing is really a surprise here, and nothing is super interesting or particularly bothersome.

@picklish@books.theunseen.city @BEZORP@books.theunseen.city There's an ebook version that was published this year. ISBN: 978-1-938570-36-0

The premise is that with some crimes, the best way to catch the original perpetrator is to decant a clone with their memories and tell the clone they have 4 days to find the original or they die. This seems like an odd backdoor method, but after that it's a decent action story. Oh and everyone also is infused with nanites that heal them and "theme" what they see. "Theme" being the term for altering perception to make everything perfect. Despite lots of words focusing on the main character (the clone) being motivated the the original killed their husband (this was the crime) that emotional aspect never really landed for me.

I've already forgotten the name of the protagonist, but the gist is: prominent noble in standard fare fantasy world is jailed for killing his wife. Son doesn't know what happened, but vows to get father out of jail except he's first being sent to the front lines of an unwinnable war. He draws up plans like a Pepe Silvia meme, wins the war in hours, then high-tails it back to the homeland for poorly written Machiavellian political intrigue to get his dad out of jail. Dad is mad at getting out, confesses to killing wife because she nagged, and then father & son are on opposite sides of more political intrigue.

Poor poor execution on a half-assed idea.

Once the story gets past the beginning chapters and gets into the criminal element in New York, Red Bailey being lined up as a murder suspect there, and then on the run in the Sierra Nevada, it's all fun twists and turns and deception upon deception packed into a mere 153 pages.

The entire setup feels flimsy & convoluted to me. I don't understand what's so special about Mumsie McGonigle that he'd let her go or change his life for her or murder for her, but also not so special that when they split up it's no big deal. Or that he'd not take steps to get rid of evidence that she knows about so that associates of hers can blackmail Red Bailey a decade after the split. But hey, women are mysterious and wiley creatures who magically make men do dumb things, am I right?