This month was another month of great reads, and I’m happy to announce that I’ve officially written 42,000 words in my novel manuscript. It’s coming along slowly, but it’s coming along nonetheless. Slowing down my reading to make more time for writing has been hard, but I am continuing to try to find a balance that works for me. I believe that your reading diet can either enhance or detract from the experience of trying to write a story.
The Great Hunt (The Wheel of Time #2) by Robert Jordan (5✸)
This novel is definitely an improvement over the first one, as is often the case with good series. The Eye of the World was a great read, don’t get me wrong, but it has to do the work of establishing the world, the magic system, and the characters, which can sometimes make first volumes of long series feel like gigantic prologues. The Eye of the World handles this well and creates a great story, but that story is a long one. The Great Hunt on the other hand, is a tighter narrative. While it does some additional worldbuilding and adds characters, it’s a solid plot-driven narrative. It also introduces one of my most feared antagonists in the entire series, which I saw in the preview for the second season of the TV adaptation. I will be reading something else for my next read, but will be getting back into this series again soon.
A Contest of Gods (Fate of Wizardoms #6) by Jeffrey L Kohanek (4✸)
At last I have finished this series. It was a wild ride. It started out in book one as a simple heist drama, but quickly turned into a battle for the fate of the entire world. The ending is suitably epic, with this last volume essentially one giant final fight. I really enjoyed this series, but will likely give this world a rest before trying out the sequel series that Kohanek wrote recently.
The Toll by Cherie Priest (3.5✸)
Cherie Priest is an author I’ve read and loved in the past, but this is her second novel that I’ve read recently that was pretty underwhelming. Her novel Maplecroft (in which Lizzy Borden battles Lovecraftian horrors…with an ax!) is a fun read, so I suggest picking that one up before anything else by her. This novel started out really good, but pretty soon descended into a drag. It was very well-written, I’ll give her that. The narration sounded very Stephen King to me, and I had to do a double take sometimes to make sure I was really reading someone else. This novel was pretty short (336 pages in paperback), but it had the impression of being a short story that was dragged out to novel length. I stuck with it, however, because of the writing. The ending was another aspect of the story that I didn’t like. It seemed very abrupt, and we didn’t even get into a certain character’s head to see how she felt about the situation, which I thought was a missed opportunity.
Infinite Stars edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt (4.5✸)
A space opera anthology with stories that take place in the Honorverse, the Dune universe, and many others? Sign me right the fuck up. I bought this chunky paperback in a used bookstore for the price of a coffee and decided to read it straight through. Most of the stories took place in established universes, which wasn’t a problem since any details that could be considered “spoilers” would go right over my head. Every story in this anthology was solid, and I didn’t feel the need to skip any. I knocked off a half star because there were some stories that were pretty forgettable, but there were plenty of tales that will stick with me. The only downside I can think of is that I now want to be caught up in all of these universes (especially the Dune universe. I know there’s 20+ novels in this universe, but at the rate they release the movies, I can probably finish them all before I have to head to the theater).
Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison (4✸)
This novel was a departure from what I usually read, but I thought I’d give it a chance, since it felt like horror mixed with comedy. Considering I’m reading Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor right now as well, Such Sharp Teeth was a good palette cleanser to listen to while I dipped in and out of Age of Vice. I liked this novel, especially because it didn’t take itself too seriously. I also liked how it was more of a rom-com story than a horror story, which made it easy listening. This is my first Rachel Harrison novel, but she will now go on the list when I need something a little lighter (assuming the rest of her work is similar).
✸✸✸
Five books is probably going to be my standard per month for the rest of the year. I’ll still hit my goal of 100 books read in 2023, though most of those were front loaded this year. My 2024 reading goal will likely be smaller. I’m thinking 70 books, but who knows; I really want 2024 to be the year I finish my novel manuscript. I haven’t read any manga in the last few months, but that’s mostly due to space constraints: I don’t really like reading manga digitally, and I just don’t have the room to collect long series at the moment. I will probably try to pick up a short or single volume horror manga this Fall, though.
The Night Bulletin 