Category: Books

Hey, look at that, I’m actually making some progress on reading this year… imagine that. Actually, I have read a few other novels in 2023, just nothing worth talking about. That’s not the case for The Gutter Prayer by Gareth Hanrahan. It’s not a perfect fantasy novel, it truly excels in worldbuilding and surprises.

The core crew of thieves — it’s a fantasy novel so of COURSE it’s about thieves — is a trio of weirdoes. There’s a rich girl-turned-cutpurse, a ghoul, and a “stone man” who’s been infected with a plague that’s turning him into unliving rock. After being betrayed during a particularly lethal job, these few find themselves caught up in a conspiracy that extends far beyond their social circles and to the entire world.

Probably my favorite feature of The Gutter Prayer is its masterful use of language. The first (and last) chapter is in the rarely used second-person voice, and the rest of the novel comes up with great descriptions and turns of phrase. I particularly liked the coarse saint who isn’t having any of diplomacy or tact, just stomping her way through wild situations while cussing left and right.

There’s a nice marriage between traditional fantasy, weird fantasy, and steampunk that makes for delightful exploration. The tallow-men are particularly cool, being former people who are remade into ruthless wax candles that go hunting and stabbing for lawbreakers. There are “god bombs,” deep underground warrens, sorcerers made out of mind-eating worms, teleportation, and so much more.

The Gutter Prayer was a good read, although perhaps a tad on the long side for my interest. By the last 30 pages, I wanted it to be done… and it just kept going. While, like every fantasy novel these days, it sets up a series, I’m content to make this a one-and-done effort.

I haven’t been doing many posts lately on books because I decided that the only reviews I wanted to do were books that I genuinely enjoyed. And it’s been a bit of a bad streak in that regard. What few books I’ve listened to or read have been middling-to-Did-Not-Finish.

But I may have broken that streak thanks to an Audible sale, which landed me about 15 new titles for my library. Chief among these was an interesting-sounding fantasy novel called The Justice of Kings which came highly recommended by my friend Steff.

This first book in an ongoing series follows a roving judge for a sprawling empire as he investigates a murder that gradually unfolds into a rather large conspiracy. While there are a lot of forces arrayed against him finding out the truth and dealing with it, the judge has a small band of helpers, skill with the blade, and two magical powers at his disposal (the Emperor’s Voice to compel people to take action or speak and the ability to speak with the recently deceased).

Even though it’s a bit of a slow burn, I wasn’t ever bored of this well-told story. It’s lifted up due to two factors. The first is that it’s told from the perspective of Helena, a 19-year-old clerk of the judge — but this account comes to us via an elderly Helena recording her life’s early adventures. I rather liked that, even if teen Helena is a bit moody at times. The second is that the world-building is uniformly excellent, with every chapter featuring an interesting development or explanation for something in that world.

There’s also a nice balance between the investigative side of the story and more adventurous/battle elements. It never stays too long in either camp, so there’s a nice always-changing variety.

While it can be grim at times, Justice of Kings isn’t exactly grimdark. It’s a strong tale of justice that gradually gets warped into revenge — and an empire threatened from within. I’ll add my recommendation to this as well.

It was a so-so year of reading for me. I had far more “did not finish” books than I would’ve liked, including some sequels that I thought were shoo-ins for greatness. Even so, I ended up with six titles that I would feel easy recommending to anyone — including, believe it or not, you!

Dungeon Crawler Carl

I with into this LitRPG series with a lot of reservations — chief among them being that I don’t read LitRPG at all — but I was won over by the humor, creativity, and marriage of tabletop stats and underlying drama. Carl and his sentient cat Donut are a compelling team, and I’ve since read books two and three as well.

The Blacktongue Thief

Easily the best fantasy entry I enjoyed this year. Just tremendous writing with a whole lot of humor and creative worldbuilding — even if that world can be pretty grimdark at times. Cannot wait for a sequel.

The Wizard’s Butler

I bought this audiobook on the premise alone — an ex-EMT becomes a butler for a guy who claims to be a modern-day wizard — and thoroughly enjoyed the cozy fantasy tale. Yes, it gets in the weeds of explaining every single action taken by everyone, but I thought it was a unique spin overall.

The Dark Side

This “detective noir on the moon” absolutely hit the spot with a dogged investigator, a corrupt system, and a murderous, unstoppable android on a mission. Really good writing with every chapter leaving me wanting more.

Justice of Kings

Speaking of detective stories, this tale of a roving justice and his teenage clerk slowly and surely sucked me into its complex world and morally compromised figures. Honestly not sure if I’ll read the sequel or not, but I did love it.

Chasing Graves

My final recommendation takes us to a world where the dead are resurrected as eternal slaves to the living. With one of the viewpoints being a particular zombie, I thought it was a tremendously fun idea with a lot of possibilities for the rest of the series.

Ask any book reader what are the three most dreaded letters in existence, and chances are that you’ll get this answer: “DNF”

DNF is shorthand for “did not finish” — a reluctant (or perhaps frustrated) admission that the reader gave up on the novel and moved on to better prospects. It’s a phrase that’s been circling my head in the past month or so, thanks to a string of books that I quit partially through. These include the lauded-yet-kind-of-dumb The Maid, the way-too-YA Inheritance Games, and the slightly-too-slow Bone Orchard. Another book, Dead Silence, I only finished by cranking up my Audible reader to 1.5x speed and powering through the last few unsurprising hours.

Novels aren’t like TV episodes or movies. A bad movie’s only going to set you back 90 to 150 minutes, on average. It’s the same for everyone. A novel? Depending on how fast you read, you’re talking a much more substantial time investment. I don’t get nearly enough time to read in my life as I would like, so I don’t want the 20-or-so books I encounter a year to be ones that I force myself to finish.

Unfortunately, many DNFs don’t rear their heads in the first few chapters. Books can start well or keep me going on momentum for quite some time. And the thing is, the further into a book you are, the more guilty you feel in giving up on it. Sunk cost fallacy and all that.

I don’t LIKE giving up on a book, but I’m getting more comfortable with the notion. If it’s not keeping my attention, making me care about the plot and characters, and delivering interesting twists or surprising world building, eh, you lost me. I’ll go elsewhere.

What I find essential is that after a couple of DNFs in a row, it’s important to crank out a reading win — a book that you want to stick with the whole way. For me, that means stacking the deck by reading a favorite novel (known quantity) again or going into a sequel of a trusted series. Mentally, this resets the counter and gives me encouragement that the next book that I take a chance on might be better than those ones I’ve tossed on the DNF heap.

I’ve been sadly negligent in delivering a report on recent novels I’ve read. It’s not that I haven’t been reading — actually I’m on a bit of a tear recently — I just fell behind on posting about them. So here’s a five-book report to make it up to you!

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

So here’s the thing: I almost never go for LitRPG books. They’re almost always too gimmicky to be taken seriously as a story, and I bounce right off of them. But someone was pushing Dungeon Crawler Carl on me pretty hard (and didn’t tell me it was LitRPG), and before I knew it, I was sucked into a rather ridiculous story of the Earth being transformed by aliens into a massive multi-level dungeon. There’s a little too much heavy-handed exposition in the first chapter, but stick past that, and you’ll go on a hilarious, engrossing, and purely imaginative trip with Carl (a guy in boxer shorts who loves his explosives) and Princess Donut the magic-using cat. What really surprised me, though, was that there’s some depth here with the characters and slowly unfolding galactic storyline that made me want to read the next entry.

Carl’s Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman

…which I totally did, right away. I got hooked on Carl and Donut’s adventures down into this gradually collapsing dungeon, and apparently with each new level comes different themes, rules, and secrets. And while the two try to survive down below, they also attempt to navigate game show politics through interviews and garner as many patrons as they can — and evading the ire of enemies. It was a very, very solid follow-up, and the only reason I didn’t immediately go on to Book Three was that I had too many other books to read at the moment. But rest assured, I will be coming back to this before the end of the year.

The Dark Side by Anthony O’Neill

A really great book is one where every single chapter is worth reading — because every single chapter contains its own hook, revelation, or exciting development. That’s what makes a page turner: a book that doesn’t tread water. The Dark Side might well be the most page-turn-worthy book I’ve read this year. I devoured it in two days, taking in this noir mystery that just so happens to take place in a lawless city on the moon. The main detective is a great hard-boiled example of the genre, but the worldbuilding and the rampage of a truly frightening android was what kept me coming back whenever I could snatch a few spare minutes to read. Highly recommended.

The Thirteenth Hour by Trudie Skies

Speaking of Herculean worldbuilding efforts, The Thirteenth Hour really took on a massive task of creating a fantasy setting that combines twelve fantasy realms with twelve races, twelve powers that each race has, and twelve gods that rule over each. They’re all connected to a god-neutral city called Chime, where a mystery (or mysteries) are afoot, and only a dogged Warden and an underground rebel have a shot at figuring out the unpleasant truth that threatens all of the realities. The novel occasionally skirted the line of losing me, but that was more early on. The only major complaint I have is that it ends on a cliffhanger rather than a resolution, and that felt cheesy to me.

Balance of Trade by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

Instead of continuing this lengthy series from the midpoint that I entered, I rewound back to the near-beginning with this novel about a human apprentice to an alien trader. It was good — very good at times — as a coming-of-age tale, but the follow-up lost me early on. It’s a series I need to get back into some day.

Last week, my parents bought me an early birthday present — a brand-new Kindle Paperwhite to replace my old one, which had gotten a hole in the screen somehow. I’ve found it a delightful gift, especially since my previous Kindle was from 2014. Yes, I run technology into the ground, especially if it’s still working. Ask me how old my iPad mini is and why my wife keeps begging me to buy me a new one for Christmas, only to hear my refusal of “Hey, it still works!”

But I don’t mind an upgrade, no sirree! There’s more screen real estate, far faster page turning time, a “warm” backlight feature for reading before bed, and I even got a cover to go with it to keep it from getting scratched.

What’s weird to consider is that this is actually only my third Kindle… ever. I’ve had more kids than Kindles at this point in my life. Thanks putting my geeky life down in this blog, I have a record of this journey. My first one was 12 years ago in June 2010, presented to me by my father-in-law. This was the second edition of Kindle, I believe, with the clicky page turning buttons and the keyboard (which kindles needed for some reason, maybe shopping). My favorite feature with that one, aside from reading eBooks, was having a free internet via cell towers that came with the device.

Then for Christmas 2013, I bought myself a Kindle Paperwhite because I had to have that backlight. This became the trusty powerhouse reader that I would tote around for almost a decade — a time span that seems absolutely wild to me now. Other than slow page turning, I had no qualms with it. It was very durable, I could read in the dark, and it was small enough to slip into my pocket.

In fact — embarrassing admission time — just two weeks ago I had my kids tearing the house apart looking for this Kindle so that I could take it with me on a trip. Only to realize after 20 minutes that, yes, it was in my back pockets. I guess this is the new “those missing glasses are on your head.”

So now I’m onto my third. This actually delights my kids, because my old tech becomes their new toys. I’m setting up my old Paperwhite to be the kids’ ebook reader, and they are jazzed about it. And it pleases me, because I don’t like to get new stuff only to toss old tech onto a pile to be forgotten.

Another five novels in the bag for 2022, so it’s time to do a quick book report and share my thoughts on each!

Legends & Lattes

I’d heard this one described as a “cozy coffeehouse fantasy” that constituted a quick and smooth read, and it was indeed that. It’s nothing more or less than a fantasy of an Orc who hangs up her adventuring sword in favor of starting a coffee shop in a town unused to such modern establishments. It spends a whole lot of time detailing the store being built, which was fine, although I wasn’t quite buying all of the coincidences that brought every perfect person into Val’s life for this project (even with the doohickey).

Mort

My first Death novel from Pratchett. I’d heard a lot of good things about Mort but ultimately came away feeling unsatisfied with it. Mort is a gawky kid who takes up an apprenticeship with Death, who ends up checking out of the biz to try to find some fun in his life. Mort takes over, messes things up, and tries to find romance along the way. Some OK jokes but nothing like the City Watch series.

Strangeworlds Travel Agency

I’ll say straight-up that this ended up being a DNF (did not finish) for me, not necessarily because it was bad, but just a little too kiddie for my tastes. It’s about a girl who joins a society of explorers that jump through suitcases to visit other universes. And it’s fine, I guess, but it just dragged after a while and didn’t have enough hooks to keep me after about half the book.

The Mask of Mirrors

Book reputations aren’t always what they’re cracked up to be. This one got such rave reviews that I snapped it up on audiobook, struggled to keep my attention after a few chapters, switched over to a printed version, and felt the same. There’s potential in a tale of a grifter who worms her way into a major merchant family, but it didn’t stay interesting enough to keep my attention. This went on the “did not finish” pile.

Agent of Change

This is my first Liaden Universe novel, a series I hadn’t even heard of before this year — and yet it’s been going on some 24 novels and countless short stories. And let me tell you, I was BOWLED OVER by how good it was. Interesting, decent action, funny bits, nice world building, and all-around good writing. I was on board with this start to finish, and by the end, I wanted to go through the other 23 books to catch up. Fun story about a space spy and a scrappy merc who become partners and make best friends with a giant turtle.

Time for another round of five books that I’ve read recently! We’ve got at least three must-read gems in here, so read on…

The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman

Without any preamble, let me just say that this is one of the absolute best fantasy books I’ve read in a long, long time. It hit all the spots I’m looking for: A funny and likable main character, a whole lot of interesting worldbuilding, and a good balance between grit and grins. It follows Kinch, a semi-talented thief who’s tasked with escorting a small band of travelers up into giant country to perform a vital mission. I listened to the audiobook of this (read by the author) and was blown away by the conversational language and gripping narrative. Against, you’ve got to read this if you like fantasy.

Battle Mage by Peter Flannery

I’ve never felt as conflicted as a reader than with this book. On one hand, it’s almost, almost bordering the realm of stilted and doe-eyed writing that’s the bane of many bad fantasy novels. Yet on the other hand, it has some actual depth and competence. It’s the story of a kid who makes a bad mistake that nearly gets his whole village wiped out and then has to redeem himself by becoming a super-powered battle mage who loves dragons. Parts of it are very good, very gripping, and other parts are a generic slog. I ended up with a DNF around 70% into this 824-page monstrosity, so my final verdict is quite mixed indeed.

Dead Space by Kalli Wallace

Give me a mystery set in an outer space environs, and I’ll gladly sign up for a tour. Dead Space follows a somewhat lowly security officer who wheedles her way into joining an investigation covering a murder on an asteroid. But things get complicated, and then more complicated, and then even more complicated until a whole bunch of reveals and connections are made. Top-notch stuff, other than some bizarre political posturing shoved into the midst of the text. Had me captivated start to end.

Black Stone Heart by Michael R. Fletcher

A man wakes up buried underground with no recollection of who he is — only that he can sense parts of his shattered obsidian heart scattered throughout the world and must re-absorb them to reclaim his memories. Thus begins a rather fascinating if grimdark adventure through a fantasy world that’s barely recovering generations after an earth-shattering war. There’s a great magic system, some terrific characters, and a few nice twists and turns. However, I wasn’t really buying the author’s attempt to have the main character torn between trying to become a better person now or slipping back into the terrible man he used to be. Scene after scene he’s like, “Oh I’m going to be really good… AFTER I mercilessly slaughter this person and steal their soul. But I want to be good!” The balance isn’t quite right there. Still, a gripping read that made me snap up the sequel right away.

The World Gives Way by Marissa Levien

What starts as an indentured servant fleeing with the child of parents who committed suicide and a wet-behind-the-ears cop who pursues her quickly becomes something far more interesting. For one, this is taking place on a giant generational world ship that’s in the middle of its 100-year journey to another planet. For another, the “world” is coming to an end because there’s this ever-expanding hole in the side of the ship that can’t be fixed. And so what we get is a sad but fascinating adventure at the very end of humanity as these people face their collective demise and try to give those last days purpose. It’s a book that got in my head, emotionally, and I had to put it down a few times because of that. But good stuff all around.

While I never seem to get enough time to read these days — and perhaps part of that is not making it a priority over other forms of entertainment (games, movies), I do squeeze some reading into each and every day in a variety of ways. In fact, one thing that I’ve noticed is that in 2022, we have so many more ways of reading books than when I did as a kid or younger adult.

As someone who’s availed himself of each of the main types — audiobook, print, Kindle e-reader, phone, and computer — I started to think about which one was “best.” Or, at least, best in a certain situation. So let’s look at each of these and see if there’s a winner.

Print

With the rise of technology in the field of book reading, there’s a not-insignificant crowd out there that swears by print and print alone. And I’ll admit, there is something about the tactile feel, look, and even smell (yes, smell) of a printed book that you can’t get with any other option. They also look really nifty on a bookshelf, especially if you have a nice selection of hardbacks.

For me, however, hard copies are not my favorite. They’re bulky and not always pleasant to hold (either using two hands or one that has to do some extra muscle work to keep the pages open). They also can be easily subject to damage. I only buy physical books for church work and study, as I do enjoy going through my commentaries every week for sermon prep.

Audio

I’m a huge fan of Audible and leap on every discounted sale that they do, having racked up around 130 or so titles in my library. The marriage of a great author and a great narrator can create an amazing experience that lets me “read” a favorite book in a new way. Audio books also have the benefit of fitting into little slices of my day — meal prep, commuting, biking, walking — that let me do double duty. The downsides here are that audio books take longer to read, don’t allow you to easily see names for that ever-important recall, and are expensive if you don’t find sales.

Kindle

This right here is my preferred reading device since I got the second generation model back in the day. As a lifelong reader, I LOVE the Kindle for its ultra-portability, the adjustable font, the easy-on-the-eyes screen, the backlight, and the ability to store thousands of books on a device that’s lighter than my phone. Downside? It’s a single-purpose device that I have to make a conscious effort to bring with me where I want to read, so sometimes I’m hunting around for it or don’t have it at my beck and call when I’m somewhere else.

Phone

The Kindle app on the phone was the first way I ever interacted with this platform, and while I don’t use it that often, it’s kind of nice to have as an ever-present option. I changed the way I read books from flipping pages to scrolling, since scrolling feels natural, and I can get in a few pages here or there. People don’t really think anything of someone staring at their phone these days, so it’s not obvious I’m reading. Downside? Small screen, harder on the eyes, not usually something I think about.

Computer

OK, this is a weird one, but it comes up from time to time, so I’m including it. I have the Kindle app on my laptops and, yes, it comes in handy on occasion. Usually that occasion is “stuck in a meeting where it’s OK for me to use my laptop and I only need to half-listen anyway.” So there’s a way to read books. It’s OK. Definitely not the way I like to sit back with a novel, but the way it syncs across platforms makes it an option.

Conclusion

This is a purely subjective call, but for me it’s a mixture of Kindle and audiobook for about 90% of my weekly reading, followed by some print and light phone usage. I usually end my day in bed reading for a half-hour with my Kindle in the dark, and that really helps to calm me for sleep.

I don’t have any set quota that I want to hit for reading in 2022, except for “more than the pitiful showing that was 2021.” I usually am working through two titles — one on Kindle, one on Audible — and thought I’d give a report every time I hit five of them. So here are the first five titles I read this year.

Far from the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson

Ostensibly a locked room mystery set on a spaceship, Far from the Light of Heaven suffers from trying to do too many things at once without doing any of them well. Thompson gives us an intriguing setup — a ship full of hibernating passengers that arrives at its destination with dozens dead and no clear suspect — but then muddies things up with too many developments, a weak central story, and a cast that’s all about an inch deep of character development. It was interesting enough to keep me reading to the end, but I knew well before the final chapter that this was a misfire.

A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

This is my second Kingfisher book after Minor Mage, and now I’m seeing a pattern. Both had a good core concept — here, a teenage girl who has a magical affinity for working with bread and bread alone — both try to be whimsical, and both are kind of very thin and shallow. I liked the concept of a girl learning to use her weird magical talent to save her city more than how it was actually executed, and that’s a shame.

Second-Hand Curses by Drew Hayes

Using the public domain realm of fairy tales, Hayes navigates it with a trio of mercenaries — a guy who climbed a beanstalk, an undead creation, and a werewolf — who are always out for profit. And if the profit happens to help people cursed or plagued by magical scenarios, so much the better. This book is broken up into episodes as the trio go on their journey, and while most are interesting twists on familiar tales, the descriptions sometimes get a little too stilted and awkward for my liking. Still, it was a good read.

Tales of the Greatcoats by Sebastien de Castell

I was beyond delighted to return to the Greatcoats world for a fifth book, even though this is a series of short tales instead of a larger narrative. De Castell didn’t give me as many stories as I was hoping (although the “Vol. 1” part is promising), but he made up for it with some great moments, unique characters, “what happened next” answers, and some other perspectives. I really liked one that features a disgraced Greatcoat and a series of other ones that feature a new Greatcoat who’s both fat and an expert in the supernatural. This was a breezy read.

Admiral by Sean Danker

I’d been hearing about this book for a while, so I sprung for an audiobook version a month ago. It’s a scifi survival tale that at least nominally revolves around two mysteries. What’s happened to put four soldiers inside an abandoned spaceship, and who is the main character — the titular Admiral? I was looking forward to some good mystery reveals, but what I found was that the book is mostly about this foursome figuring out how to survive and keep going. It’s fine, just fine. Not quite as amazing as I’d hoped, but it was a decent listen.