What are you reading in 2025?

[jian]

Two parallel books I’ve been reading recently:

My Mother’s House by Shari Franke is a memoir of growing up in a house dominated by her Mormon tradwife influencer mother and her psychology cult leader. Both Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt are currently in prison for abusing Shari’s younger siblings, and the remaining Frankes seem to be trying to rebuild their family and life. Surprisingly, despite her experiences and being groomed and sexually abused by a Church elder, Shari still seems devoted to the LDS and to her faith.

I’m about halfway through I’m Glad My Mom Died, a memoir by child actor Jennette McCurdy (Sam on iCarly) about growing up in a house dominated by her Mormon mother determined to live vicariously through her daughter’s success, haunted by memories of her mother’s breast cancer. McCurdy is considerably more insightful - worryingly so at times - than Franke about the psychological damage that her mother inflicted on her, and that makes the book a funnier yet more harrowing read.

 

[jian]

Two books with the same title I’ve read recently:

Careless People by Sarah Churchwell is a delightful telling of the writing of The Great Gatsby from the point of view of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, who were frankly both terribly careless and selfish people who very much suited the Jazz Age in which they lived.

Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams is a view of the upper management of Facebook/Meta when Wynn-Williams worked there (2012-18) and it’s clear that the company has never had anything resembling corporate ethics or idealism, especially after its IPO in 2012. Neither Zuckerberg nor Sandberg come across at all well - the former is a clueless, dominating infant and the latter is a narcissistic pseudo-feminist.

 

[Alzrius]

I just finished another classic bit of fantasy that I picked up years ago but only recently made time for, that being Lest Darkness Fall [and] To Bring the Light.

Some quick explanation is in order for those who (correctly) recognize that as two different titles. When I was looking to purchase a copy of L. Sprague de Camp's Lest Darkness Fall, I ended up locating this 1996 Baen Books reprint of the story, which in addition to an introduction by Harry Turtledove also included (the debut publication of) David Drake's short story "To Bring the Light."

The latter isn't any sort of sequel to de Camp's story, having none of the same characters nor being directly (or even indirectly) related to his tale. Rather, it's a story in the same vein, involving a noblewoman living in Rome circa 250 AD who finds herself sent back in time one thousand years after being struck by a lightning bolt, where she meets Romulus and Remus.

It is, in other words, an homage to de Camp's story, which has an American archeologist named Martin Padway visiting Rome in 1938 sent back to 535 by a freak lightning strike. Once there, Padway (who just so happened to be discussing the "many worlds" theory of time travel, albeit not by that name) realizes that Rome is about to be devastated by the Gothic War, heralding the Dark Ages, and (with no way home and no better prospects anywhere else) elects that he'll alter history for the better, hence the title of the book.

When I was younger, I looked askance at de Camp as a person, mostly for his unflattering biographical presentation of Robert E. Howard, which struck me as especially shameless given de Camp's "posthumous collaborations" regarding Howard's character of Conan (I know some people say that helped maintain the popularity of Howard's work, keeping it alive; that's not wrong, but I found it more of an excuse than an acquittal). I've since mellowed out on that stance (albeit mostly because Howard seems to have since been given a much fairer shake, and his "un-collaborated" stories made much more available), and elected to try some of de Camp's other work, beginning with what Gary Gygax recommended in his famous Appendix N. Hence my having picked this up.

I'm quite happy to say that my decision to give de Camp a chance was well worth it. There's a lot to like about this story, largely (to me) due to how relatable (for lack of a better term) the main character is. While Martin Padway doesn't stand in as a proxy for the reader per se, he's nevertheless very easy to empathize with in terms of being a man with modern sensibilities in a world where those sensibilities are shared by almost no one. de Camp does a shockingly good job of presenting the characters of 6th century Rome as having very different values from a 20th century American.

But what makes the story more than just a thinly-veiled exposition on life in Rome at that time is Martin himself, who undergoes a subtle but fascinating change as he acclimates to his surroundings. Initially confused and repulsed by everything from the living conditions to the pervasive superstitious ignorance, we see Martin grow more and more adept at navigating Roman society, using his (rather impressive) knowledge of future events and his familiarity with modern technology (some of which he's able to recreate, while others don't quite follow through), both of which he leverages to pursue his goals.

While this may be a time travel tale, in many ways it's an isekai story before isekai stories were a thing. (Obligatory shout-out to Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee here.)

On a somewhat more tangential note, I'll also mention that this story was the subject of two different reviews which I found fascinating to compare. One, written by an individual whose political, economic, religious, and social beliefs I disagree with strongly was nevertheless both fun and inspirational to read, whereas the review from an outlet whose beliefs are more in line with my own nevertheless left me cold in how it seemed to not only find nothing worthwhile in the book, but couldn't seem to get past how it clashed with the reviewers' sensibilities. If nothing else, it was a good reminder that even the people you don't agree with can have worthwhile things to say, while the people whom you do may not.

As for David Drake's tale, it wasn't bad, but honestly came across as being too short for what it wants to do. This is somewhat ameliorated by the story hinging on a much more specific change to history (and if you know the story of Romulus and Remus, you know what that is), but while it ends once the pivotal moment is reached, the lack of anything subsequent feels detrimental. We know that Martin Padway is fighting to stop, but the main character in "To Bring the Light" seems to have less of a clear goal, despite the more specific change she's intent on.

Overall, de Camp's tale is deserving of its accolades, and definitely showcases his strengths as a writer. In that regard, Drake's story doesn't shine as brightly in the comparison, but wasn't bad overall.

 

[Autumnal]

First a pedant’s note: portal fantasy was a name and category decades before isekai and has a far wider scope. Isekai is one subset of portal fantasy the way military sf is one kind of sf. I’ve found very little isekai I like - mostly me being too old and out of sync with a lot of the cultural framework - but there’s a lot of portal fantasy I like.

Lest Darkness Fall is one be of my oldest sf faves, and nearly as important as Poul Anderson’s Time Patrol in kindling a permanent love of history in me. I love both the drama and the humor - the inter-denominational bar fight remains one of the funniest things I’ve ever read. I should re-read it soon.

How’s the Drake? I’ve not read it yet.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Finished Ken Grimwood's 1986 novel Replay, winner of the WFA in 1988. Shades of Groundhog Day, and in fact apparently Grimwood's lawyers and the film's attorneys had "words".

Story features a 38 year old in 1983 (or 43 in 1988? I forget) in a loveless marriage and a dead-endish job dying, and waking up in the body of 18 year old himself back in 1963. And then what happens thereafter. No spoilers here.

I read it in two sittings. While it's ~250 pages long, it was a very fast read. Highly recommended, I don't know what else it was against in the 1988 WFA slate, but it definitely deserved to be nominated, if not the winner.

Fun-ish fact - Grimwood died in the town in which I now live, and on June 14th, I will be exactly the age he was when he died (59 and a few months). In terms of fantasy, if I do die and go back to 1984 me (when I was 18), I'll remember to remind my parents TO NOT THROW AWAY MY COPY OF ARDUIN GRIMOIRE.

 

[Alzrius]

How’s the Drake? I’ve not read it yet.

Re-reading my post, I think my take on Drake's story was a bit muddled, because I was basically trying to talk about both stories at once while also comparing and contrasting them.

To review Drake's story by itself, it's good for what it is, but I can't help but feel like the narrower scope works against it. That might just be because it comes right after a much longer (and richer) take on the same basic premise, but it's also because there's very little in the way of resolution after the climax. I personally like to something in the way of an epilogue after a denouement, and this...sort of had a brief nod at one, but nothing more than that.

In terms of conflict, the central aspect which drives things is the contrast with how the main character (a Roman noblewoman named Flavia Herosilla) relates to Romulus and Remus. Horrified by the primitive conditions she finds herself in, she's intent on making sure that the more civilized world she's familiar with comes to pass (and as soon as possible), for which she needs Romulus to rule. But she finds Romulus detestable on a personal level, given his arrogance and sense of entitlement (plus, you know, he attempts to force himself on her shortly after their first meeting).

Remus, on the other hand, is a perfect gentleman toward Herosilla, but makes it clear he prefers the bucolic lifestyle that she finds unbearable. Remus has no desire to live in anything larger than a small community where everyone knows each other, doesn't see much point in learning to read or write, and generally has no sense of ambition. But he's kind, brave, honorable, and hardworking, being the overall better man even if he has no wish to be any kind of ruler.

It's to Drake's credit that he doesn't make this as simple as a "two brothers fighting over a woman" tale. Nor is this easily reduced to a story about Herosilla being torn between who can give her a better life versus who makes her happy. Rather, both of those elements are blended with Herosilla trying to simultaneously ensure that events happen as they're supposed to while also attempting to change how the brothers' destined showdown ends. Her navigating two paradoxical goals forms the crux of the plot.

The problem is that Drake also needs to mix this in with the inevitable "fish out of water" part that forms the beginning of the story. That is, he has to present the initial setup (i.e. Herosilla in her own time), the initial confusion that goes with her transportation into the past, her figuring out where (or rather, when) she is and the implications of that, getting used to the local surroundings, and figuring out what to do...all before the central conflict can be put front-and-center. That's a lot for a roughly fifty-page story (and being a mass market paperback, the pages aren't that big).

Again, Drake didn't do a bad job; he just felt constrained in how things turned out, and I have to wonder if he knew this was going to be printed as an addendum to a much longer story and was told to write it accordingly.

 

[Autumnal]

Replay is one of my very favorite obscure novels, a classic “more than the sum of its parts” cases.

And thanks, @Alzrius.

 

[cbwjm]

I gave up on Foundation, it just didn't get me interested, I'm now going to give at least the first book of the Xanth series by Piers Anthony a go, see how that is.

 

[trappedslider]

I put in for an inter-library loan on A Graveyard sky, it's the first in a Zombie series by John Ringo

 

[Clint_L]

I've just read the first two books of Gibson's new Jackpot trilogy and love them! It's the most out there sci-fi Gibson has ever done in the sense of revolving the plots around a pretty fantastical premise: communications time travel so that a future earth is able to communicate backwards with it's own history, within the past century or so. But each time they do so, it automatically splinters that past off into a new direction.

Gibson doesn't explain things until well into the first book, so it takes awhile to fully understand what is going on. I love the space he leaves for the reader to figure things out. And his prose, as always, is absolutely gorgeous. These are his most action-packed books since the original Sprawl trilogy, and this feels almost like a franchise setting; I could see him adding on to it past the current trilogy. I highly recommend, if you are a fan of more literary sci-fi.