What are you reading in 2025?

[prabe]

On my tbr shelf (also got used, although only within past 5 years or so).
I'm finding a lot of dystopian/cp/post-apoc fiction from the 80s/90s isn't aging as well as I would have hoped, as our real life appears to be heading/arriving at Dystopia Station right on time (hello Parable of the Sower!).
Hopefully the book is as good as folks thought back in the day (nominated for a Nebula, won a Clarke). I'll be interested to hear your thoughts, maybe I'll bump it up my list...

I'm really not arguing, here, but I kinda gotta wonder which would be "aging worse," for (post-)apocalyptic or dystopian fiction: society starts to look like the fiction, or society looks as though the fiction is impossible (or at least implausible)? I can see either answer, honestly.

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

Me, I would probably be happy hustling in The Sprawl compared to the irl societal development. There you can at least dream about and strive for a better future. Here it’s currently only a question of what will kill us first.

 

[overgeeked]

Thought I’d switch things up with some hopeful sci-fi. Just finished the Doctor Who tie-in novel The Clockwise Man, New Series Adventures 1.

The story follows the (Christopher Eccleston) Doctor and Rose through London of the 1920s. They encounter aliens, clockwork men, more aliens, more clockwork creations, the heir to the throne of the Russian Empire, a hotel for the deposed “nobles” of Europe, and a deposed dictator from outer space. Goddamn do I love Doctor Who.

The story was well written and ticked along at a good pace. I’m an avid fan so know the standard formula all too well. I was surprised at what the specific beats were, but never when they landed. There were a lot of familiar elements here. Many of them used (or reused) in the show over the years since this book was published back in 2005 and only two months after the first episode premiered.

One thing I love about Doctor Who tie-in novels is that they manage to actually capture the feel of the show. A lot of tie-ins don’t really do that. They expand on the show or movies and make the stories bigger and so they tend to sprawl out, losing the feel. Not here. It’ll probably take you longer than an hour to read one of these, but it’ll feel just like an episode of the show.

 

[Autumnal]

Agreed a lot, and that quality is seldom fully recognized or appreciated.

 

[gban007]

Thought I’d switch things up with some hopeful sci-fi. Just finished the Doctor Who tie-in novel The Clockwise Man, New Series Adventures 1.

The story follows the (Christopher Eccleston) Doctor and Rose through London of the 1920s. They encounter aliens, clockwork men, more aliens, more clockwork creations, the heir to the throne of the Russian Empire, a hotel for the deposed “nobles” of Europe, and a deposed dictator from outer space. Goddamn do I love Doctor Who.

The story was well written and ticked along at a good pace. I’m an avid fan so know the standard formula all too well. I was surprised at what the specific beats were, but never when they landed. There were a lot of familiar elements here. Many of them used (or reused) in the show over the years since this book was published back in 2005 and only two months after the first episode premiered.

One thing I love about Doctor Who tie-in novels is that they manage to actually capture the feel of the show. A lot of tie-ins don’t really do that. They expand on the show or movies and make the stories bigger and so they tend to sprawl out, losing the feel. Not here. It’ll probably take you longer than an hour to read one of these, but it’ll feel just like an episode of the show.

I also quite enjoy the Big Finish Doctor Who audios, though have built up a bit of a backlog to listen to.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I finished reading Snow Crash. Can't believe it took me this long to get to it. Super-prescient in how it depicts the absurdity of late-stage capitalism. Also, there was this short paragraph about how as library collections include more multimedia, more digital media, they will become these nebulous things spanning the physical and electronic. And that was written in 1992, probably about ten years before that actually started happening.

Now I'm re-reading William Gibson's Count Zero. It's been ten years since I last read it.

This weekend I have Synners by Pat Cadigan as bed reading. Got it used like 20 years ago, and despite me being a cyberpunk aficionado I didn't touch it until now. It's good, comfy, old fashioned cp, and dated in a good way for the fan.

Also on my TBR list. For some totally unknown, completely mysterious reason, dystopian cyberpunk is comforting right now.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

One thing I love about Doctor Who tie-in novels is that they manage to actually capture the feel of the show. A lot of tie-ins don’t really do that. They expand on the show or movies and make the stories bigger and so they tend to sprawl out, losing the feel. Not here. It’ll probably take you longer than an hour to read one of these, but it’ll feel just like an episode of the show.

I noticed that when listening to the novelizations of the Douglas Adams scripts, including the uncompleted ones. Even if one wasn't familiar with the Tom Baker Doctor Who, there was no question that these were 100% Doctor Who stories. Novelists really do tend to have the structure and voice right on those.

 

[Voadam]

I noticed that when listening to the novelizations of the Douglas Adams scripts, including the uncompleted ones. Even if one wasn't familiar with the Tom Baker Doctor Who, there was no question that these were 100% Doctor Who stories. Novelists really do tend to have the structure and voice right on those.

A number were written by series script writers I believe. There are a huge number of Who books and audio dramas though and they vary a lot in my experience. I had some kid oriented ones for my son when he was younger and they were noticeably different in evoking a Doctor Who feeling from say the writing in the Sharda audio drama.

 

[Mercurius]

The Sword Defiant by Gareth Hanrahan.

I'm impressed. A classic-feeling fantasy that is well written and just good fun. Basic premise, going off something he said in some interview, is 20 years after a LotR type conflict, but if the One Ring had been used to defeat Sauron, and Mordor inhabited and transformed (sort of). Hanrahan is an experienced and very well regarded game designer - one of the main writers for the One Ring.

 

[Desdichado]

I just finished a collection called The Cthulhu Stories of Robert E. Howard. I'll be turning to actual Lovecraft soon, but first, I'm reading one of the old Arkham Horror tie-in trilogies; Lord of Nightmares. I'm on the second book, Lies of Solace I think it's called. I'm also re-reading the d20 Call of Cthulhu book in my gaming stuff. Bit of a theme there, I suppose.

I'm also finishing up The Horned Rat from the "director's cut" Enemy Within campaign, and I'll pick up the Companion to that book as soon as I finish it. And I'm also (slowly) doing a crawl of all of the Adventure Paths. I've read Shackled City and Age of Worms so far, and I'm about a third through Savage Tides, at which point I'll pick up Rise of the Runelords.

I'm also about to reread my old prints of the Riftwar Saga by Raymond Feist, before his "director's cut" versions became commonplace. The editor actually improved those books, particularly the two volumes of Magician. And I'm about halfway through the third (of four) volumes of the Write Great Fiction series. I read Dialogue and Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint last year, and I'm in Description & Setting with Plot & Structure still to go this year.

My daughter also bought me Mountains of North Carolina and Space Pirates of Andromeda by John C. Wright, so those are on my list to read in a few weeks or so once I get to them.

On the gaming side, once I finish my Cthulhu re-read, I'm going to pick up my old copies of Privateer Press's d20 Monsternomicon books. I've always found those to be great fun and inspirational, much moreso than any other monster book. I have a big stack of older 3e era books that I'm either re-reading, or in some cases reading for the first time too, but I won't get to those for a few months at least.