What are you reading in 2025?

[Parmandur]

I see. I guess I'm kind of the opposite way, I really don't like lickspittle/fainting/damsel-type female characters in cis-hetero stuff unless they're actual lunatics/stalkers (when it sort of wraps around to being kind of fun again), which are sadly not uncommon in the worse-written shonen-type stuff that WoT is rather equivalent to (I mean, WoT is a cut above the really dire shonen, to be clear, it's not like, "average isekai" levels of bad), and in a lot of shoddier fantasy.

I guess the shoe is on the other foot now though as a lot of female-led fantasy novels of the slightly shoddier kind basically gender-flip to a similarly rubbish dynamic, and just have tsundere Edward and Jacob equivalents inexplicably in love with the female lead, despite her behaving like a jerk/maniac. I'd blame Twilight but Vampire Eric vs Vampire Bill shows it pre-dates that.

Right, I think for a certain set who came to the Wheel of Time expecting the standard narrative, the strong female characters (I think Nyneave's chapters are an absolute Masterclass in third person limited writing) and the sevre and debilitating PTSD of the three male protagonists were irritating.

 

[Retros_x]

Jordan does, ultimately, manage to have his cake and eat it too on this count. Yes, there is a lot of really frankly bizarre wish fulfillment (he will not beat those harem charges, and by the end of the series Jordan's own personal fantasies are crystal clear, though he keeps everything off screen), but also draws out the difficulties, challenges and rewards of real deep relationships.

Ok thanks, that is good for my expectation management for the upcoming books.

Yeah, the part of the fandom that hates them is a weird thing, to be honest. They are very well drawn out characters, in my opinion.

I especially like Nynaeve! I am really glad we get now POV chapters in this book (only a few though) and I am always looking forward to them. I love her banter and her passionate hate towards the Aes Sedai - while joining them. Its hilarious. The only thing that didn't work for me completely is her relationship with Lan, because it happened so sudden. I saw the hints in book 1 and I understand that most of the "falling in love" happened from Rands perspective - who had a limited POV to this happening. But it also happened "out of camera" - when they were seperated in book 1 we got almost no chapters from the grop of Mouraine, Nynaeve and Lan. I hoped in book 2 to maybe retroactively get a bit insight in how that happened but it seems I just have to accept that the feelings they have for each other were just conveyed as a dry fact to me as a reader.

Wait people hate Nynaeve and Egwaene? I had no idea. I guess both of them can be wet blankets at times but honestly a lot of the characters in WoT could benefit from some wet blanketry!

I goodled Nynaeva just for the spelling of her name and immediately got reddit threads like "How long am I supposed to hate Nynaeve?" and similar stuff. Which is wild to me.

I mean, WoT is a cut above the really dire shonen, to be clear, it's not like, "average isekai" levels of bad)

Yes, I want to be clear I was focussing of these similarities to Shonen manga because they became so prominent in book 2. But the book has more to offer and I still enjoy it a lot while I don't enjoy average isekais at all.

 

[Parmandur]

I especially like Nynaeve! I am really glad we get now POV chapters in this book (only a few though) and I am always looking forward to them. I love her banter and her passionate hate towards the Aes Sedai - while joining them. Its hilarious.

One of the elements of the series which definitely gets better is that Rand is increasingly decentered as the main POV. Per the fan Wiki, in the end Rand only provides about 17% of the text of the series, which is the most of any individual character by a fair shake, but it is not the "Rand Al'Thor Show" more and more as it goes on.

 

[jian]

My fourth book of the week is Failed State by Sam Freedman, which is an absolutely outstanding analysis of the entrenched and worsening problems with British government over the last four decades or so. It’s more detailed and insightful than How Westminster Works by Ian Dunt (mostly about Parliament) and Why We Get The Wrong Politicians by Isabel Hardman (mostly about MPs), but is a fine companion piece to both and maybe one to read afterwards; all three are excellent.

Freedman is a former civil servant (Education under Gove) and avowed policy wonk, and diagnoses the main issues as over-centralisation (especially a lack of devolution within England, and a lack of power within Parliament), a lack of long-term capacity (established policy and implementation units; civil service capacity, independence, and expertise; funding, independence, and power in local authorities), and a lack of incentive to implement much-needed reforms aimed at solving these issues. I also think these are exactly the problems with the NHS (I’d also highlight a distinct lack of experienced staff like me since we’ve all quit) and I think he’s likely to be correct about this too. Freedman argues his case well with plenty of examples (including a detailed analysis of what his team and he got wrong in Education). Highly recommended if you like that sort of thing.

(I appreciated the insight that Yes Minister, entertaining as it was, was basically Thatcherite propaganda and hopelessly out of date about the civil service and government by the time it aired. The Thick of It was apparently much more accurate.)

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

For paper books, I have just started A Long Game: Notes On Writing Fiction by Elizabeth McCracken.

I'm listening to a bunch of audiobooks right now. Arguably by Christopher Hitchens (weighing in at 28 hours, 22 minutes of content) and The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye by A.S. Byatt are some of the latest. Also a re-listen to The Martian by Andy Weir.

 

[gban007]

Yeah, the part of the fandom that hates them is a weird thing, to be honest. They are very well drawn out characters, in my opopinion.

Is an interesting one. Im a little different i think, I think both are very good characters in the series, but I find Nynaeve likeable, and Egwene dislikeable. Interestingly I think in first few books it was more the other way round, but Nynaeve really grew on me, as it became clearer what drives her brash personality, but Egwene's arc made her less and less likeable for me. But both great characters, as both create a string reaction from me, I would say I love Nynaeve and hate Egwene as such.
I think similar for Mat and Perrin for me too, I liked Perrin / disliked Mat early on, but that switched later.
Interstingly think I also have double standards between protagonists and antagonists, being more favorable to the latter / like them more despite similar flaws.

 

[jian]

Read Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones (of Howl's Moving Castle fame), which is the first of the Chrestomanci books, set in an alternate Edwardian era where magic is like music (anyone can do it but you do need a lot of practice to be any good and it's better in groups).

It's really very good, and I particularly like the implied subversion of children's story narratives. A young teenager (Gwendolen) with great magical talent and a lot of fiery independent spirit is adopted by her uncle, a terrifying if absent-minded wizard (Chrestomanci), and lives with him and his dull fat wife and children. She is forbidden from using magic and reacts by playing hilarious magical pranks on them. Surely she'll overcome with her irrepressible courage and talent?

However, this narrative is already undermined by the fact that Gwendolen is not the protagonist - her younger and downtrodden brother Cat is. And the longer things go on, the clearer it is that Gwendolen isn't a heroine, she's actually a terrible person, and the dull fat wife and children are actually very nice and not even slightly dull; the daughter (Julia) gives as good as she gets from Gwendolen any day of the week.

 

[Parmandur]

Is an interesting one. Im a little different i think, I think both are very good characters in the series, but I find Nynaeve likeable, and Egwene dislikeable. Interestingly I think in first few books it was more the other way round, but Nynaeve really grew on me, as it became clearer what drives her brash personality, but Egwene's arc made her less and less likeable for me. But both great characters, as both create a string reaction from me, I would say I love Nynaeve and hate Egwene as such.
I think similar for Mat and Perrin for me too, I liked Perrin / disliked Mat early on, but that switched later.
Interstingly think I also have double standards between protagonists and antagonists, being more favorable to the latter / like them more despite similar flaws.

Definitely room to think thst Egwene is a very flawed protagonist with unaddressed issues...but I think she is well drawn out, warts and all.

 

[Alzrius]

I just finished reading C. Knutson's 2003 work A Short History of a Delicate Subject: Condoms through the Centuries.

This eleven-page pamphlet (which only has nine pages of writing) is, naturally, an exceptionally short product; reading it took me about ten minutes, and that was at a relatively casual pace. Still, it goes into fairly surprising depth on the topic in question, covering (albeit only very briefly) numerous facts about the development of condoms. For instance, it notes that while the obvious use of preventing the spread of diseases and pregnancies are presumably why condoms were used in antiquity, we can't rule out the use of religious or ritual possibilities as well. In more recent times, it notes several humorous anecdotes, such as James Boswell going to a brothel in Amsterdam and just drinking with a prostitute there, having forgotten his "armour" (one of the slang terms for a condom from that period).

Surprisingly, after the talk about the condom's history, it then spends several pages talking about more contemporary issues, such as how condoms are tested for reliability. In addition to the types of tested conducted, ranging from filling them with water to check for leaks to "air burst" tests (which involve inflating them like a balloon to see how they stand up to pressure) to tests involving the transmission of microbes, it also notes that such tests are conducted by the government, private organizations such as Bruce Voeller's Mariposa Foundation, and even Consumer Reports; and here I thought they only ranked cars!

Overall, this didn't get too deep, and ended much too quickly, but was still quite intense while it lasted.

 

[Autumnal]

Now there’s a reading report I wasn’t expecting.