@Falcon94 Glad you're enjoying it! I also find Herbert to be a bit of a dense read at times, but in the case of Dune, the story and characters more than makes up for it, in my opinion.
Just wrapped The Reversal by Michael Connelly (Goodreads page), the third book in the Lincoln Lawyer series and the 21st book in the larger Bosch Literary Universe (BLU? ). Connelly's books are becoming like comfort food for me now, so this was, unsurprisingly, another four star review on Goodreads from me.
Continuing on my "crime spree", I will now return to Peter May with the third novel in his China Thrillers series, The Killing Room (Goodreads page)
I Finished Annihilation and look forward to what happens in Area X over the next two books. I should watch the film again as last time I was tired and kept nodding off.
Had a great time reading Slaughterhouse 5. Crazy book that made me chuckle several times throughout!
@XandertheWise How is the Star Wars novels these days? I need to go back and read The New Jedi Order, got about 5 books in before the opposite sex started taking up my time.
well pretty much any new Star Wars novels these days are of the High Republic stuff. im about done with High Republic Fallen Star so ill be reading the new Eye of Darkness novel pretty soon.
I Finished Annihilation and look forward to what happens in Area X over the next two books. I should watch the film again as last time I was tired and kept nodding off.
Had a great time reading Slaughterhouse 5. Crazy book that made me chuckle several times throughout!
@XandertheWise How is the Star Wars novels these days? I need to go back and read The New Jedi Order, got about 5 books in before the opposite sex started taking up my time.
Calvino is faring quite well so far, I am about 250 pages in now (of 713 pages) and there has been a sprinkling of stories with unhappy endings mixed in with the 99% happy ending nature of the other folktales, so, yeah, they are a welcome breath of fresh air from the norm, but yeah, I would still recommend this book, if you can take a slight bit of repetition in terms of all the happy endings to the stories, because the journeys to get to those endings are infinitely varied.
@MightyDemon82 Interested to hear your thoughts on Authority. I didn't connect at all with Annihilation and found it to be frustrating (and the movie even moreso). I can't put my finger on why, though, but as a result, I never read the sequels, so I'm curious to hear how the entire trilogy works as a whole
@FuriousMachine I liked the first book but need to re-watch the movie as I fell asleep when I originally seen it. I'll give you my thoughts once I've read them!
Now onto Collection of Sand by Calvino. I wouldn't recommend Italian Folktales actually, as, at 713 pages of tales with mostly happy endings.... it gets a bit much!. Collection of Sand is faring much better so far, a much slimmer volume at about 240 pages and is a collection of his short non-fiction works, travel writing and such.
"I think the best art doesn’t preach the truth, but encourages viewers to discover what truth is on their own." - Shinique Smith
Finished The Killing Room (Goodreads page), the third book in Peter May's China Thrillers series. I've enjoyed them so far, but this was the weakest of the bunch. I guess I got a little tired of the love/hate drama between the two protagonists. I get that it's "good" drama, but, for me, it got a bit tiresome now. The case they are trying to solve this time is quite horrific, but I didn't find it all that engaging. A couple of new characters are introduced, but I feel they were ultimately squandered. Still, the novel was good enough for three stars in my Goodreads review.
And that closes out my reading year for 2023 and I just barely made my reading challenge goal of 30 books. For 2024 I may lower it to 25 books, as I have fewer reading opportunities now.
During the coming year I plan to finish out The Witcher series, as well as wrapping up the China Thrillers. I also plan to keep a steady pace through Michael Connelly's Bosch-universe and return to a more regular pace of reading old Stephen King and Dean Koontz books.
First up, though, is James Clavell's Shogun (Goodreads page), an epic which I hope to finish before the new TV adaptation premieres at the end of February. Can't believe it's taken me this long to dive into it, really looking forward to it
@PixelDragon Yeah, I saw it back around when it first came out, but I was very young and I remember almost nothing of it. I bought it on DVD quite a while ago, but never got around to watching it. I will give it a go, but I think I should wait a bit to avoid the risk of getting "Shogun overload" (real medical condition, very nasty). Will be interesting to compare and contrast with both the book and the new adaptation, though
Have you read the other books in Clavell's Asian saga? As I understand it, they aren't really all that connected, other than being historical dramas set in Asia, but I wonder if they are equally as loved as "Shogun".
I don't know how, but I've read 60 books this year. I struggled for a bit with Authority in the mid section but I pushed through. I'll still read Acceptance but will read something else first.
My final book of the year was The Golden Mole by Katherine Rundell. A book about wondrous creatures on the planet!
2024 will be fantasy and Sci-fi heavy. Kicking off With either Blake Crouch (Dark Matter, Upgrade), Gene Wolfe - Book of the new sun or Dan Simmons - The Fall of Hyperion.
Just finished the Lightbringer series, 5 book epic fantasy. Really enjoyed it although the ending is not the most popular.
Curious if anyone finished it and their thoughts.
@MightyDemon82 Sounds good; you've got some nice reads ahead of you there, in my opinion I enjoyed "The Hyperion Cantos" quite a lot, but struggled a little bit with "The Fall of Hyperion". I fell off the narrative a little bit early on and felt like I was dragged behind the horse, struggling to keep up, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The next two books were absolutely brilliant, I thought, "Endymion" in particular. Excellent read!
"Book of the new Sun" series added to reading list!
Happy new year, everyone, may it bring lots of reading goodness to all
I do enjoy a good 40k novel. The Horus Heresy must be one of the longest series going.
Hyperion is a great story. I think the ending leaves something to be desired, but often seems to be the case with science fiction and fantasy. Certainly a very memorable read and well worth the time.
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