How many books should you read at the same time?

One sure sign that I’m in a reading slump is that I’ve got about a dozen books in my “currently reading” list—which of course means that I haven’t picked up most of them in several weeks, perhaps even months. But is this the cause of the problem, or merely a symptom of it? It could go either way.

It’s very difficult to read multiple books at the same time and still devote equal attention and brainspace to all of them. Thus, starting multiple books without finishing them could lead directly to a reading slump, since it’s very difficult to get immersed in any story when you’re spreading yourself so thin.

But… if you already find it difficult to get immersed in any of the books that you’re currently reading, then you’re going to find your mind wandering to other things. In this view, the reason you’re starting so many books without finishing them is because you’re already trapped in a reading slump, not the other way around.

I suspect that it’s something of a vicious cycle. Falling into a slump leads to starting more books than you finish, and starting too many books spreads yourself too thin. The only ways I’ve found to break out of this cycle are either to DNF most of the books on my current list, or to find a really awesome book that rejuvenates my love of reading. Which is why I’m a firm believer in DNFing books early and often.

Everyone’s number is going to be different, but if I’ve got more than four or five books on my “currently reading” list at a time, that’s a very good sign that I’m in a writing slump. Currently, I have eight:

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson: It’s been taking me a long time to get through this book, and not just because of how enormous it is. There are things I really love about the story, and other things that make it so that I can only take it in short spurts. Mostly, it’s Kaladin—I really love him as a character, but wow does he hit rock bottom, again and again and again.
The Fourth Turning by William Strauss and Neil Howe: This book is amazing, but it’s also really dense, and I’m taking my time to work through it, underlining all of the passages that really stand out because I know I will be coming back to this book again, and again, and again. Because of all that effort to truly study this book, and not just read it, it’s taking me a long time to get through it. But I will.
Maps of Meaning by Jordan Peterson: Another incredibly dense book that is a monster of a read. This one, I’m trying to get through in audio, and it’s actually working out decently well, but my phone only has so much space, so for the last several weeks I’ve been working through another audiobook in order to free up storage for this one. Also, I literally subscribe to 100 podcasts. I may be insane.
Endowed with Power by Robert C. Line: This is my Sunday reading book, but the last several Sundays have just been filled with too many other things for me to really get to it. But it’s a short one, so I’ll probably finish it soon.
Fortress Beta City by JR Handley: I’m actually just a few more pages from finishing this one. Of all the fiction books on my current reading list, this is the one I’m enjoying the most. I just haven’t finished it yet because my ereader is always on the nightstand, near the crib. But I’ll finish it very soon.
Blackout by Connie Willis: Just started this one. The library books have been accumulating, and I decided that this was the one that I would renew instead of returning unread. But it looks a little dense, so I don’t know.
Bloodstone by David Gemmell: Just started this one, to see if reading my favorite author would help to get out of this reading slump. I’ve been holding onto this book for a very long time, since there are only so many Gemmell books left that I haven’t read.
Black Magic Academy by Emily Martha Sorensen: Just started this one, to see if reading a short book would help to get out of this slump. Also, Emily is a friend of mine, and it occurs to me that I haven’t yet read any of her books.

Looking at the list, I think part of the problem is that I’ve gotten bogged down in too many super dense books at the moment, and really need something lighter and more enjoyable to balance them out. Maybe some Gemmell? Although I wouldn’t exactly call David Gemmell “light.” Still, I fly through all of his books, they are so fantastically good. I’ll see if I can power through Maps of Meaning simply by listening to the audiobook, but I don’t know. If I DNF anything right now, it will probably be that one—although I do intend to come back to it later.

In short, I think I do best when my currently reading list is limited to the following:

One super dense non-fiction book, with maybe a second one if it’s light.
One super dense fiction book, which will probably take at least a month to digest.
An audiobook of some kind, just to change thins up.
No more than two shorter fiction books, that I can reasonably finish in a week.

New goal: blog daily

Remember the mid- to late-00s, before Facebook and social media had completely taken over the internet and we had a thriving, vibrant blogosphere full of people posting and sharing whatever they wanted? Before cancel culture and Big Tech censorship were on anyone’s minds, and the term “echo chamber” was still new and a bit strange? Those were really good days. I was in college at the time, and was just getting into blogging, first with my daily photo blog, and then with my writing blog, which is still active today.

Social media didn’t exactly kill the blogosphere, but it did beat it up, tie it up with rope and duct tape, threw it in the trunk, and drove it out to the middle of nowhere. After I deleted my Facebook and Twitter, blogging began to feel like an exercise in futility, since most of the discussion had moved over there, and very few people would read what I posted unless it got shared on social media.

But starting a new blog was always like that, even in the golden age of the blogosphere. Until you built up an audience, you always felt a bit like you were screaming into the wind. It was actually quite liberating—almost as liberating as the knowledge that you owned the space that you were speaking in, and were free to share whatever you wanted. No corporate Big Tech overlords. No Orwellian “trust and safety” departments, or whatever the hell they call it nowadays. No hard strikes, disciplinary action, temporary bans, or anything of the like. Your blog was your space, to do whatever you pleased.

I would really love to see blogging make a comeback. I have no idea if that’s ever going to happen, but even if it doesn’t, I’m still going to treat this blog like it’s still 2005, because why the hell not? Every old school blogger knows that it’s not about likes, or views, or subscribes, or shares—it’s about freedom. Even if that means that most of the time, you’re just screaming into the wind.

My main resolution for this year is to read and review 100 books. The best way to keep that goal fresh in my mind is to make an effort to post something new to this blog every day, even if it’s just a few brief thoughts on something I’m currently reading. So from here on out, that’s my goal. Blog every day, like it’s 2005 again and Google’s motto is still “don’t be evil.” Reading is my hobby, writing is my passion, and old-school blogging is the perfect way to combine the two. Hang on for the ride!

The Guadalupe Witch by Josh Rountree (Beneath Ceaseless Skies #322)

I’ve decided that instead of doing a short story roundup at the end of the month, I’ll just post about the ones I like as I read them.

I really liked “The Guadalupe Witch” in the latest issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies. It had a very intriguing beginning, with an old witch woman on a quest to resurrect her murdered son, even though it seems that she doesn’t have much of a desire to live. As the story unfolds, her son’s best friend (now an adult) enters the picture, with clear intent to harm her. But then we learn the details behind her son’s murder, and the story takes a different direction. The ending was the best part—one of the best short story endings that I’ve read in recent memory. Excellent story.

February 2nd Orem Library Trip

It’s been a while since I did one of these library trip roundups, but since we go every week and one of my goals is to post something to this blog every day, here’s a quick roundup of today’s trip to the library.

Fullmetal Alchemist Issues 10 – 27

Mrs. Vasicek has been reading the Fullmetal Alchemist manga series recently, and she decided to just go ahead and binge read all the rest of them. I haven’t read the original manga, but I have watched Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood twice, so we’re having a lot of fun talking about the story.

Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames

I heard about this one from Murphy Napier and Daniel Greene, a couple of booktubers that I follow closely, and it looks like a fun fantasy novel. No idea if I’ll get around to it before it’s due, but I thought I’d at least check it out.

The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley

Saw this one while I was browsing through the shelves. Kameron Hurley is probably 180 degrees from me on the political spectrum, but she writes earnest and well thought out columns for Locus Magazine, and occasionally comes on as a guest to some of the podcasts I listen to, like ISBW. So when I saw this novel, I thought why the heck not? Might as well check it out and see how I like her writing.

Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty

I’ve been following Mur Lafferty’s podcasts off and on since I was a freshman in college, way back in 2006. She’s mentioned this novel a lot, so when I saw it on one of the featured shelves at the library, I thought I’d check it out and see what it’s about. Mrs. Vasicek read the first couple of pages out loud as we drove home in the car, and it sounds pretty interesting! A fairly dystopian world populated by clones.

Joe Reviews: Jerusalem Fire by R.M. Meluch

DNF after 50 pages. Here’s why:

1. The story is just too convoluted. It starts out with the main character leading an evacuation, and preparing to go down with his ship to lead the enemy away from the refugees… except then, he’s attacked by the mysterious Flying Dutchman, which appears out of nowhere… except, he somehow manages to talk the ship down instead of engaging. But then, he somehow survives the actual attack, and is rescued by a mysterious person… except, they crash land on an alien world, and have to be rescued again… and it’s not at all clear who rescued him the first time, let alone the second time. And that’s just the first three chapters.

2. I don’t really have a handle on the main character. He’s supposed to be this brave and honorable freedom fighter, but he acts kind of like an idiot, too. After he gets rescued (the first time), he decides not to ask the captain who he is and what he wants, because he doesn’t want to be the first one to talk. Apparently, that would be giving the other guy too much power, or some other such arrogant nonsense. Except, both of them are following that logic, so neither of them speak a word to each other until the rescue ship crashes and they have to get rescued (again) by the aliens. But even after that, the main character doesn’t ask the guy who he is or what the hell is going on… because he’s an arrogant jackass? I really don’t follow how any of his actions make sense.

3. Honestly, I just got bored. The author tells us that this alien planet is supposed to be a land of legend, but aside from the alien equivalent of Machu Pichu where they live, it doesn’t seem all that impressive to me. Everyone talks all mysterious, like maybe he’ll get to go back to space and maybe he won’t, but I don’t know who these aliens are, what they want, or how their society works, so after it’s clear that the main character isn’t in any real danger, the story just felt too boring to continue.

Skipped to the last chapter, and yeah, it gets a lot more convoluted. Also, the thing that gets resolved in the end is the least interesting aspect of the main character’s personal conflict in the beginning. Honestly, it was so uninteresting that it almost slipped past me.

In short, this story was just too confusing for me to really get into it. But it wasn’t terrible. Just not for me.

Joe Reviews: Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

This review is going to have spoilers for the first book. If you want to read my take on the series as a whole, read my review for All Systems Red.

Of all of the Murderbot books, this one is my least favorite. It’s still pretty good, but not as good as the first. Thankfully, the other books in the series all get better after this one, so if your tastes track pretty closely with mine and you still enjoy this book, you will probably love the rest of the series too.

One of the things that made the first book so good was the interplay between Murderbot and Doctor Mensah. Compared to Murderbot, most humans are bumbling idiots, and while that’s mostly true for all of the humans in the first book, Mensah has some very high level leadership and people skills that Murderbot totally lacks. Murderbot quickly realizes this and comes to admire Mensah on a very deep level, which makes it really satisfying when it turns out that Mensah is secretly one of the leaders of Preservation and has the power to buy Murderbot and grant it its freedom.

In Artificial Condition, Murderbot starts to test this newfound freedom, and sets out to discover exactly what happened in that incident where it malfunctioned and slaughtered a bunch of people. But to do all that, it has to figure out how to blend into human society and hide the fact that it’s a rogue SecUnit. It gets a lot of help from a friendly starship, whom it hilariously nicknames ART (Asshole Research Transport), and the interaction between those two robots / constructs / artificial intelligences is by far the best part of the book. In fact, ART is probably my favorite character in the series aside from Murderbot itself.

But the rest of the book suffers from the fact that all of the human characters are basically incompetent idiots, including the bad guy that Murderbot eventually has to confront. It would be one thing if they were smart for humans while still falling short of Murderbot’s capabilities, but the impression I got was that none of these people are the sharpest knives in the drawer, so to speak. And yes, a large part of that is the gender non-binary nonsense that Wells obviously threw in to get woke points from her readership. It got very tiresome to read through all the te and ter pronouns for what basically amounted to a man (or a really butch lesbian) in a polygamous relationship. On the plus side, Wells played those characters straight and didn’t Mary Sue them.

The other thing that took away from my enjoyment of the book was that when Murderbot discovered what happened in the incident, it felt a bit anti-climatic. I can appreciate that Wells wanted to focus more on Murderbot’s internal/emotional conflict regarding the incident, but the way that it was written left me very confused as to what it had actually learned. And then, when Murderbot tried to get closure by talking to ART about it, I was left scratching my head because I still wasn’t entirely sure what had actually happened in the incident. So that could probably have been written better.

Even with all of that, though, I still enjoyed this book. Murderbot is a fantastic character, and there was plenty of action—as well as other great characters, most of them non-human—to make this a fun and entertaining book.

Joe Reviews: All Systems Red by Martha Wells

Ah, the Murderbot diaries. If you haven’t heard of these books yet, you’re in for a treat, because this is one of the best ongoing series currently in science fiction. This review will mostly just be for the first book, but since my reviews of the other books will probably contain spoilers, much of what I say here will also apply to the series as a whole.

The big appeal to the Murderbot books is the main character. It is an extremely sarcastic and scarily competent killing machine, who struggles with the human emotions it develops after hacking itself to gain its own freedom. It develops these human emotions after watching thousands of hours of sitcoms, dramas, and soap operas, especially from the series Sanctuary Moon, to which it returns for comfort whenever things get super tense. There’s also an element of mystery, because it’s implied that the reason Murderbot hacked itself is because it malfunctioned and went on a killing rampage, and that the security bond company’s efforts to wipe that incident from its memory banks were not entirely successful.

The biggest thing I like about Murderbot is how incredibly competent it is, even though it would not describe itself that way—indeed, it goes out of the way to point out its own failings, though more out of its anxiety issues than anything else. But really, Murderbot is quite brilliant at solving problems—or, more importantly, identifying potential threats and neutralizing them before they become problems. Paranoia really can be a lifesaver sometimes, especially when you’re a rogue SecUnit and all the humans are terrified that you’re one malfunction away from going on a killing spree. Again.

But even though Murderbot is extremely good at what it’s been programmed to do—and also at a few things it hasn’t been programmed to do, such as hacking into networks and systems the way it hacked into itself—when it comes to human emotions, or dealing with people, or any kind of social interactions whatsoever, Murderbot constantly struggles. And this is probably what makes Murderbot so adorable to its many fans. That, and all the self-deprecating sarcasm. These books all have a very strong character voice, and after reading just a few of them, you feel like you’ve made a good friend.

The first book starts out with a fairly typical mission for Murderbot, though the characters on this mission are very important in the later books. Even though Murderbot is technically a free agent, it has done everything within its power to hide that fact, and continues to behave like any other SecUnit that the company (which is never named in any of the books, for reasons that become increasingly ominious in the later ones) rents out on security contracts. Basically, Murderbot is content pretending to be just another SecUnit while filling all its downtime with watching entertainment media. But of course, the events of the book soon break it out of its comfort zone, forcing it to reveal to its human clients that it is, indeed, a free agent.

The thing I like most about the humans in this book is that even though they are idiots at times, especially in those areas where Murderbot has its strengths, they understand emotions and people much better than Murderbot does. This is especially true of Doctor Mensah, the head of the expedition, who is a genuinely awesome leader—and Murderbot quickly comes to recognize and admire her as such. As Murderbot and the humans learn to work together, it becomes quickly apparent that the strengths of the one complement the weaknesses of the other, which makes for a very satisfying book.

The reason I’m giving this book four stars instead of five is because I think it would have been stronger if the first four books had been combined in a single novel, as opposed to four novellas. There are some things I really like about the novella format, such as the ease of reading it and the speed with which it draws you into the series as a whole. But it didn’t really give me a strong sense of immersion. It was fast, it was fun, and Murderbot was really awesome, but it lacked the immersion necessary to ramp all of those positive aspects of the story up another notch.

Thankfully, though the first book does end on something of a cliffhanger, it definitely holds together as a complete and satisfying story, and a wonderful introduction to the rest of this awesome series.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.

But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn't a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied 'droid—a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as "Murderbot." Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.

But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.

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About the Book

Details

Author: Martha Wells
Series: The Murderbot Diaries, Book 1
Genres: FICTION, Science Fiction / Action & Adventure, Science Fiction / Crime & Mystery, Science Fiction / Cyberpunk, Science Fiction / Humorous, Science Fiction / Space Exploration, Science Fiction / Space Opera
Tag: 2021-01 Books
Publisher: Tor
Publication Year: 2017
Length: Novella
Narrator: Kevin R. Free
Rating:

List Price: $13.39
eBook Price: $3.99
Audiobook Price: $9.79

Martha Wells

Martha Wells has written many fantasy novels, including The Books of the Raksura series (beginning with The Cloud Roads), the Ile-Rien series (including The Death of the Necromancer) as well as YA fantasy novels, short stories, media tie-ins (for Star Wars and Stargate: Atlantis), and non-fiction. Her most recent fantasy novel is The Harbors of the Sun in 2017, the final novel in The Books of the Raksura series. She has a new series of SF novellas, The Murderbot Diaries, published by Tor.com in 2017 and 2018. She was also the lead writer for the story team of Magic: the Gathering's Dominaria expansion in 2018. She has won a Nebula Award, two Hugo Awards, an ALA/YALSA Alex Award, a Locus Award, and her work has appeared on the Philip K. Dick Award ballot, the USA Today Bestseller List, and the New York Times Bestseller List. Her books have been published in eleven languages.

She has had short stories in the magazines Black Gate, Realms of Fantasy, Lone Star Stories, Lightspeed Magazine, and Stargate Magazine, and in the Tsunami Relief anthology Elemental, The Other Half of the Sky, Tales of the Emerald Serpent, Mech: Age of Steel, and The Gods of Lovecraft.

She has essays in the nonfiction anthologies Farscape Forever, Mapping the World of Harry Potter, Chicks Unravel Time, and The Kobold Guide to Magic.

Some of the links in the page above are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. You will not receive any additional charge. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Piper Reviews: Half the World by Joe Abercrombie

My first review! I very much enjoyed this book, which wasn’t too unexpected since I read the first book in the series and very much enjoyed that book as well.

Of course, there was always a danger that I wouldn’t enjoy it since we ditch the main character from the previous book — or turn him into a side character — and follow two new characters.

The first in Thorn Bathu, your basic girl who wants to fight the world. The second is Brand, a guy trying to do the right thing. When Thorn gets unjustly sentenced to death for “murder,” Brand tells the Minister of Gettland what actually happened, trying to do what’s right.

The story itself is basically a travelogue with a cast of fairly memorable side characters and does suffer a little bit from the protagonists’ lack of initiative; they spend the bulk of the novel tossed around by fate or caught up in the machinations of more powerful characters. Also, the ending gets some of the Lord of the Rings treatment, in that there could have been two satisfying endings before the actual ending.

But despite those weaknesses, I found the story entertaining. Brand is the kind of hero I like to play in RPGs – tough and straightforward. I find Thorn somewhat more annoying – at least at the beginning, but it’s all part of her character arc, and the point at which she’s the most insufferable – the beginning – Brand’s chapters help balance that out.

You could probably hop into the series here without too much confusion, but some of the fun is found in seeing what has happened to characters you loved from the previously novel, so I would suggest starting from the beginning with Half a King.

If you like the grim dark genre, but don’t necessarily want the characters you are following not to be total reprobates, Half the World is probably for you. The world is certainly a grim one, but the characters make it enjoyable to spend some time there even if you wouldn’t want to stay permanently.

Half the World by Joe Abercrombie

Thorn Bathu was born to fight. But when she kills a boy in the training square she finds herself named a murderer.

Fate places her life in the hands of the deep-cunning Father Yarvi as he sets out to cross half the world in search of allies against the ruthless High King. Beside her is Brand, a young warrior who hates to kill. A failure in her eyes and his own, the voyage is his last chance at redemption.

But warriors can be weapons, and weapons are made for one purpose. Will Thorn always be a tool in the hands of the powerful, or can she carve her own path? Is there a place outside of legend for a woman with a blade?

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About the Book

Details

Author: Joe Abercrombie
Series: Shattered Sea, Book 2
Genres: Fantasy / Action & Adventure, Fantasy / Epic, Fantasy / General, FICTION
Publisher: Del Rey
Publication Year: 2015
Narrator: John Keating
List Price: $13.55
eBook Price: $5.99
Audiobook Price: $22.04

Joe Abercrombie

Joe Abercrombie was educated at Lancaster Royal Grammar School and Manchester University, where he studied psychology. He moved into television production before taking up a career as a freelance film editor. During a break between jobs he began writing The Blade Itself in 2002, completing it in 2004. It was published by Gollancz in 2006 and was followed by two other books in The First Law trilogy, Before They Are Hanged and Last Argument of Kings. He currently lives and works in London with his wife and daughter. In early 2008 Joe Abercrombie was one of the contributors to the BBC Worlds of Fantasy series, alongside other contributors such as Michael Moorcock, Terry Pratchett and China Mieville.

Joe Reviews: The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson

Brandon Sanderson is known for his massive, door-stopping tomes, but after reading The Emperor’s Soul, I think might like his short fiction better. Of course, “short” for Brandon is still a decent-sized novella. The world is rich and full of magic and history—but Brandon doesn’t explain all of it, just the parts that are relevant to the story. The characters are interesting and well developed—but we only follow one character, not an epic cast that requires multiple appendices. And for all that, the story is both tighter, faster-paced, and easier to get into and enjoy.

My favorite part of this book was the magic. I can totally see myself making a couple of stamps to “hack” myself the way Shai does: one stamp to make me an awesome marketer, another to make me an amazing cover designer, another to turn me into a sharp-eyed editor—but hey, I’m an indie writer, so using magic to make myself a one-man publishing house is a pretty cool fantasy. Point is, the magic is rich and imaginative enough that it isn’t hard to imagine how you’d use it in your own life. That’s one of Brandon’s strengths.

Another one of Brandon’s strengths is his endings. Without giving any spoilers, I can say that the ending to this one was very satisfying. No big or surprising twists, but it wasn’t too predictable either, and the ending delivered nicely on some themes and character points that were set up earlier in the book. And because it’s a short book, the ending comes a lot sooner. Most epic fantasy readers prefer to spend a lot more time with their favorite characters, but for me, the shorter length felt just about right for following Shai through this adventure.

If you’ve never read any Brandon Sanderson before and you’re looking for one of his books to try out, this is a really good place to start, especially if you’re wary of the commitment it takes to read one of those massive epic fantasy door-stoppers. Of the books of his that I’ve read, this one may be my favorite.

The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson

When Shai is caught replacing the Moon Scepter with her nearly flawless forgery, she must bargain for her life. An assassin has left the Emperor Ashravan without consciousness, a circumstance concealed only by the death of his wife. If the emperor does not emerge after his hundred-day mourning period, the rule of the Heritage Faction will be forfeit and the empire will fall into chaos.

Shai is given an impossible task: to create—to Forge—a new soul for the emperor in less than one hundred days. But her soul-Forgery is considered an abomination by her captors. She is confined to a tiny, dirty chamber, guarded by a man who hates her, spied upon by politicians, and trapped behind a door sealed in her own blood. Shai's only possible ally is the emperor's most loyal counselor, Gaotona, who struggles to understand her true talent.

Time is running out for Shai. Forging, while deducing the motivations of her captors, she needs a perfect plan to escape...

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About the Book

Details

Author: Brandon Sanderson
Genres: Fantasy / Action & Adventure, Fantasy / Epic, Fantasy / General, FICTION
Tag: 2021-01 Books
Publisher: Dragonsteel Entertainment LLC
Publication Year: 2012
Narrator: Angela Lin
Rating:

List Price: $15.91
eBook Price: $4.99
Audiobook Price: $9.79

– Joe Vasicek

Brandon Sanderson

Brandon Sanderson is the New York Times best-selling author of Elantris and the Mistborn Trilogy. In 2007, he was chosen by Robert Jordan’s widow to complete Jordan’s epic Wheel of Time series. The final volume was published in three novels: The Gathering Storm, Towers of Midnight, and A Memory of Light. Sanderson received his Master’s Degree in Creative Writing from Brigham Young University (where he was a college roommate of Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings). He participates in the weekly podcast Writing Excuses.

January 5th Orem Library Trip

It’s been a while since I did one of these library trip posts. We were busy with family for most of the holiday break, but we’re getting back into our family routine right now, and that means weekly library trips! Here are the ones I checked out today:

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells: The fourth book in the Murderbot series, which I’ve enjoyed quite a lot so far. This is a short one, and I think I’ll be done with it in a couple of days. Expect to see my review of the first book, All Systems Red, here real soon.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown: This one’s been on my Want To Read shelf for a little over a year now, though I’ve forgotten who recommended it to me, but the BookTubers I follow have been talking about it recently, so I figured I’d pick it up. No idea how I’ll like it.

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson: Mrs. Vasicek read this one a couple of months ago, and has some… strong opinions about it. Since Sanderson is such a big name, and we both really enjoy his other books, I figured I’d pick it up to see what all the fuss is about.

The other books are left over from previous library trips that I haven’t blogged about:

One Year After by William R. Forstchen: I read One Second After back in 2019, and it really hit me in the gut something hard. Great book, but wow—what an emotional roller coaster. With the pandemic and everything else, I’ve been reluctant to pick up the sequel, but I do really want to find out what happens, so I thought I’d pick it up and give it a try. Maybe I’ll read it before it’s due, or maybe I’ll decide that it just isn’t time yet. I’ve already renewed it once, so the next few weeks will decide.

Space Opera by Catherynne Valente: A fun, light-hearted read to hopefully balance everything else out. I checked this out once before and never got around to it, so hopefully this time is different.

Abaddon’s Gate by James S.A. Corey: I’ve read the first two books in the Expanse already, and really enjoyed them. Looking forward to reading the rest of the series, probably over the next few months. They’re big books, though, so I’m probably not going to binge them—too many other great books to get to!