What are you reading in 2025?

[overgeeked]

Just finished another from the Swords and Sorcery anthology. Citadel of Darkness by Henry Kuttner. This is much better than most of the others so far, except the Robert E. Howard Conan story, of course. There’s a bit of racism in this yarn, but it’s not as bad as some of Robert E. Howard’s stories. A white prince and his black servant are trying to rescue a kidnapped woman and the white prince repeatedly saves the black servant from death. It’s eye-roll inducing and groan worthy. I wasn’t expecting much from the wobbly start, but once it got going it was really good. I especially loved the encounter with the enchanting snake and snake-man sorcerer. Some great description and imagery.

 

[Autumnal]

Kuttner wasn’t as good as his wife, Catherine Moore, but that just means you have to settle for a lot of very good to excellent work from him.

 

[Richards]

I just started a book I got for Christmas: The Big Law by Chuck Logan. I had forgotten why I put it on my list when I opened it and had to do some quick Googling of the author before I remembered: he wrote Absolute Zero, which I absolutely loved. So I'm about 20 pages into it, and it's already good: it's got an ex-cop as the protagonist, getting involved in a plot to incriminate his ex-wife's new husband in a murder involving the Chicago mob.

Johnathan

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I’ve long since had to give up on the idea of a TBR pile. I have books I’m reading and books I own. I have read some from both. Either read and kept or re-reading. My TBR pile would clock in over a few thousand books at this point. I have an ever expanding library and I will hopefully get to most of them before I die.

 

[trappedslider]

View attachment 395151

 

[Old Fezziwig]

My brother once said part of his eulogy was likely to be "he enjoyed making lists and, we assume, intended to do things."

 

[Paul Farquhar]

My brother once said part of his eulogy was likely to be "he enjoyed making lists and, we assume, intended to do things."

That reminds me, I must make a list of things to make up that I did to leave for my eulogy.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Alien Clay, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I know everyone loves him, but something about his characters leaves me cold. Still good if you like his stuff. Doesn't really break new ground.

Likewise, his stuff doesn't do much for me. Maybe it's his thing with spiders.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Likewise, his stuff doesn't do much for me. Maybe it's his thing with spiders.

I’ve only read one of his. I enjoyed it, but not enough to make me want to go and read more.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

I actually just finished Children of Memory by Tchaikovsky, and it was my least favorite of the three novels in the series. I agree with @Nellisir that his character work can sometimes let him down, and I felt that pretty acutely in this book.

Where I thought it was possible to read Children of Time and Children of Ruin primarily for the conceptual stuff, and Tchaikovsky does just enough character work to keep the books engaging, this one deëmphasized the conceptual stuff to such a degree that the character work had to carry a lot more. And it ended up that I didn't find Liff, Miranda, or Kern particularly compelling either in motivation or characterization such that they could carry the novel in place of the conceptual stuff, even if their selection was entirely appropriate thematically and narratively. Gothi and Gethli were fun but also a little thinly drawn, such that I wondered if he really had a solid understanding of the ideas he was trying to explore regarding sentience. Ultimately, I can imagine and respect that Tchaikovsky might not have wanted to do another first contact story, but I would've been grateful to spend more time with the Corvids on Rourke.