What are you reading in 2025?

[Clint_L]

Just finishing Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. It reads like Dickens reimagined by Flannery O'Connor. I recommend!

 

[Arnie_Wan_Kenobi]

I adored the novel, but I'll admit I took the voice as it was, I didn't come into it with any set expectations for a "noir" narrative voice; I didn't find it distancing at all. Obviously, there's room for differences of opinions, here.

Just finished. Ended up liking it more and more as it went on, while the narrative tone/voice still bugged me a bit, the characterization, Xanatos gambit pile-up, and worldbuilding drew me in more and more. And the ending....very "noir"

Spoiler

as the sun does rise, I finally saw the "dark" that my brain pictures in a Noir City. Hadn't really had that feel since the opening scene. I also really liked the continuation of the glimmer of hope not only for the city, but for Barrow's legacy, in the afterward.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Got an Advanced Reading copy of a new Elric novel today at the library book sale. Written by Moorcock, The Citadel of Forgotten Myths published I think in 2022. This may get bumped up toward the top of the to-read pile... tbh, it's been so long since I read an Elric book, I forget all except the very highest of highlights of the series as a whole. This one apparently takes place early on in the internal chronology.

 

[WayneLigon]

A friend of mine gave me The Taking (2004) by Dean Koontz. Another terrible stumble, here, and ultimately a complete waste of time. It starts off okay and the first 4/5ths or so of the book is pretty good; lots of interesting stuff there to steal for your alien or post-apocalyptic game.

Basically, aliens invade. Very Cool Idea: massive global rainstorms seed the ground with alien vaguely fungal/slime-mold flora/fauna; they are alien-forming the planet. Author Molly and former preacher husband Neil investigate the dark twisted landscape around them as they make their way to the tiny little mountain town that is the only civilization in these parts. Things start to kinda go off the rails in this part because far too many times, critical information come to Molly through hunches, intuition, and just plain guesses that always come out 100% in her favor. Honestly, it's lazy-ass writing.

Thing pick up a bit more as we get to the town and get some other stories and insights into what is going on. There are some genuinely horrific bits here that could be put to use in most horror RPGs. Descriptions, situations, hideous critters and dire fates abound

And then it ends. They wake up on the third day and all the hideous lifeforms are vanishing in the warm sunlight, the titanic motherships have gone away, etc. Apparently if you were kind to Dogs and to The Children, you got to live. Everyone else is dead. Some tacked-on again-quasi-mystical intuition tells Molly that they basically went through the Biblical Apocalypse and the 'aliens' were demon sent to wipe out most of evil humanity.

I used to really like Koontz but these last two books I've read have really put me off him. I liked the Odd Thomas books but now I have to wonder if I just glossed over the Boomer bitching about how corrupt and diseased the modern culture is.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Both Peripheral and Agency are Gibson's best work in years, and are definitely a different take on cyberpunk.

I watched the Peripheral TV series, so I really should get to the books.

Got an Advanced Reading copy of a new Elric novel today at the library book sale. Written by Moorcock, The Citadel of Forgotten Myths published I think in 2022. This may get bumped up toward the top of the to-read pile... tbh, it's been so long since I read an Elric book, I forget all except the very highest of highlights of the series as a whole. This one apparently takes place early on in the internal chronology.

One of the things I love about Moorcock is that as many times as he has revisited Elric of Melnibone, he has never given into the temptation to alter the finite, fixed endpoint of the character's story.

 

[WayneLigon]

The Cloak Society by Jeramey Kraatz

Nice little Young Adult superhero book - first in a series, the other two are waiting to be read.

12-year-old Alex Knight is a telekinetic metahuman and he is a fourth generation member of the villainous Cloak Society. And make no mistake, they are villainous. They don't play around at all and they don't 'play games' with the metahuman superheroes who guard Sterling City. They can and do kill heroes on and off-screen.

Alex's 12th birthday party - a bank heist - goes poorly when he can't rip the vault out of the wall. Also, he and his team go up against the Junior Rangers, the sidekicks of The Rangers of Justice and he falls slap-dab in love for the first time. Not a real surprise since it's the first time he's seen a girl that wasn't basically related to him.

The Cloak Society had their butts handed to them about 10 years ago when they went head-to-head with the Rangers. The used a sinister device to exile several Rangers into a shadowy oblivion, possibly forever. In turn, head Ranger Lone Star (the series takes place in Texas) kills most of the Cloaks and the Society literally goes underground with their four remaining members, there to raise their children and a couple other metas in secret, planning to eventually emerge and take their revenge.

Now, Alex has drunk the Kool-aid here. He absolutely believes what his parents and the other members have told him about what they want, why they act as they do, etc etc, until he starts to question things. Being a killer just is not in him, despite his parents being two of the most murderous and evil supervillains I've seen in some time. However in a nice turnabout, they love their son and they don't mistreat him aside from a little tough-love about his powers (it's pretty obvious early on that his powers are tied to his belief in them).

There are some nice ongoing mysteries here about what really happened when the Society went up against the Rangers, and some lies upon lies upon lies that are not all solved by the end of the book.

I liked it well enough to get the other books and look forward to reading them.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

A friend of mine gave me The Taking (2004) by Dean Koontz. Another terrible stumble, here, and ultimately a complete waste of time. It starts off okay and the first 4/5ths or so of the book is pretty good; lots of interesting stuff there to steal for your alien or post-apocalyptic game.

Basically, aliens invade. Very Cool Idea: massive global rainstorms seed the ground with alien vaguely fungal/slime-mold flora/fauna; they are alien-forming the planet. Author Molly and former preacher husband Neil investigate the dark twisted landscape around them as they make their way to the tiny little mountain town that is the only civilization in these parts. Things start to kinda go off the rails in this part because far too many times, critical information come to Molly through hunches, intuition, and just plain guesses that always come out 100% in her favor. Honestly, it's lazy-ass writing.

Thing pick up a bit more as we get to the town and get some other stories and insights into what is going on. There are some genuinely horrific bits here that could be put to use in most horror RPGs. Descriptions, situations, hideous critters and dire fates abound

And then it ends. They wake up on the third day and all the hideous lifeforms are vanishing in the warm sunlight, the titanic motherships have gone away, etc. Apparently if you were kind to Dogs and to The Children, you got to live. Everyone else is dead. Some tacked-on again-quasi-mystical intuition tells Molly that they basically went through the Biblical Apocalypse and the 'aliens' were demon sent to wipe out most of evil humanity.

I used to really like Koontz but these last two books I've read have really put me off him. I liked the Odd Thomas books but now I have to wonder if I just glossed over the Boomer bitching about how corrupt and diseased the modern culture is.

I also liked the Odd Thomas books up until... The ending. It sort of felt like he was done with the series, and just decided to stop.

No explanation of the

Spoiler

bodachs, as well as many other mysteries planted in the series, but never harvested (but which I can't remember atm) Edited to add: Oh yeah, like why is Odd Thomas Odd Thomas? Why can he see dead people? Why can he see bodachs?

I was disappointed, to say the least.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Just finished Whispers Underground, the third book in the Rivers of London series. It somehow managed to feel slighter than the first two books while being longer and to be pretty enjoyable without being particularly consequential? I particularly enjoyed the bits and bobs that took place in the Underground and below and some of the flourishes about the secondary characters (there's a brilliant description of Seawoll late in the book that was delightful). All in all, I'm looking forward to the next book.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Just finished Whispers Underground, the third book in the Rivers of London series. It somehow managed to feel slighter than the first two books while being longer and to be pretty enjoyable without being particularly consequential? I particularly enjoyed the bits and bobs that took place in the Underground and below and some of the flourishes about the secondary characters (there's a brilliant description of Seawoll late in the book that was delightful). All in all, I'm looking forward to the next book.

Yeah, the geography stuff in that book is particularly good.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I finished reading First, You Fight By the pseudonym D.B. Drumm. Prime 80s nuclear post-apocalyptic schlock. It's got just about every trope you'd expect, good and bad. Not a great book, but at least an enjoyable one. And for all the Rambo-like qualities of the main character, it doesn't ever forget that, like the Rambo of First Blood, he is deeply traumatized.

Now I'm continuing the Budayeen Cycle, with George Effinger's A Fire in the Sun.