What are you reading in 2025?

[Richards]

Conversely, that synopsis makes me think of my favorite episode of Black Mirror.

As an aside, my son and I just progressed far enough through the "Black Mirror" series that tonight we watched the "Metalhead" episode. You weren't kidding; that was intense! It definitely ranks up there in my top three so far, and we still have roughly half of the series left to watch.

Okay, brief thread hijacking over.

Johnathan

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Finished vol 2 of Black Cloak from Image. Sci-Fi/Fantasy murder mystery in the last city on earth. Amazing art. Recommend.

Black Cloak TP, Vol. 2

Now, five years since the “Essex Fire,” Kiros has changed dramatically, and ex-Black Cloak Phaedra Essex is either the city’s greatest hero or greatest villain, depending on who you ask.

imagecomics.com

 

[the Jester]

Just finished Morning Star, the third Red Rising book; next up is Harrow the Ninth, sequel to Gideon the Ninth.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Just finished the Mountain in the Sea. Great ideas -- what if a species of octopus in what was Vietnam developed language -- but the author couldn't quite pull off the combination of ideas and suspense.

The climax of the book literally has two people chit-chatting in a panic room while they're unaware of what's happening outside and the main villain (?) dies off-screen.

Some fun modern cyberpunk/dystopia ideas, including lots of thoughts about AI, climate change -- there's a fishing trawler run by an AI captain that moves between largely depleted fishing sites based on market conditions and weather reports -- and the obligatory collapse of traditional nation-states in favor of multinational corporations. (Although, interestingly, Tibet gets free of China and becomes a tech powerhouse, although based on the practices of Tibetan Buddhism.)

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

I came to Faulkner late, but I've never regretted reading him only coming to him late. How are you picking your Faulkners?

I read Swedish translations of Light in August and Absalom, Absalom when I was in my early 20ies, and got mesmerized by the writing style. But too many other books pocked on my attention and I never moved on from there. Over the years though I’ve picked up quite a few Faulkners in English to read on that famous rainy day (my backlog book stacks are ginormous) and, well, now it’s raining.

I usually enjoy doing a more systematic reading of an authors body of work. But now with F I’m just gorging myself, it’s like language pr0n. So no thought-through selection. But man, that dude could write!

 

[Autumnal]

Wow, translating Faulkner sounds like it’d be amazingly hard.

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

Translators of Serious Lit are laughing at rocket science - that is only numbers, this is the words of art and the art of words.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

I finished The Player of Games early yesterday morning. I liked it somewhat better than Consider Phlebas, but I missed the looseness of that novel. It had a bit of a wild and woolly feel that was a joy. This was often more restrained, and though I see the reasons (Gurgeh is pretty restrained), I found it disappointing nevertheless. That said, I love characters that threaten to take over a story -- my college Shakespeare professor argued that Mercutio had to die in Romeo & Juliet or it would have risked turning the play into a comedy, and I had the same feeling about Shohobohaum Za here. I would read entire novels about the ambassador looking for grif.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

my college Shakespeare professor argued that Mercutio had to die in Romeo & Juliet or it would have risked turning the play into a comedy

Yeah, that play was Romeo and Ethel the Pirate’s Daughter.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I finished reading Cameron Reed's The Fortunate Fall. That was a book so good that I was left struggling what to read next. It had so many layers to it, and one heck of an ending.

I eventually decided on Philip K. Dick's Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said for my next read. You have to follow greatness up with either more greatness, or schlock. Anything in-between just won't do.