Books

TODO

I went into the first entry in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series knowing only that it’s a highly regarded fantasy epic. The author’s preface proudly warns that there’s no hand-holding, no explaining, just straight in-at-the-deep-end immersion in a lore-heavy fantasy world full of characters and historical events and wars and plots and so on. Which I was ready for, but even with that expectation there were definitely times Gardens of the Moon was a slog. Reviews are mixed, and fans say the series gets really good as of books 2 and 3, but given my experience with the first one I’m not ready to jump into book 2 just yet.

Another excellent Cosmere novella, with another intriguing magic system and set of compelling characters. A somewhat bittersweet read for me personally, as I now have no more Cosmere novels to read until Mr Sanderson writes another!

Insights and anecdotes about the company that changed videogames, as told by the people who work there. The risks Nintendo takes don’t always pay off but when they do they’re revolutionary, and the focus is on fun above all else 🎮

This standalone novel introduces the next major era of the Cosmere, with another fascinating new world and magic system. I’m eagerly awaiting more books to find out what else has been going on since the end of the Stormlight Archive’s Wind and Truth and Mistborn’s The Lost Metal 👀

This Cosmere novella is especially brief - Mr Sanderson is such a prolific writer he probably smashed out these 70 pages in his lunchbreak - but it’s very enjoyable from start to finish. I’d love to read more set in this particular world.

For a life-long fantasy fan it’s weird that I’ve never actually read The Lord of the Rings, so I picked up this all-in-one volume of the trilogy. The story is of course very familiar from who knows how many watches of the movies over the years, but I found Fellowship a bit of a slog to get through. I know things pick up from The Two Towers so I’ll persevere, but I’d struggle to say I particularly enjoyed the first book despite my love for the story and the genre it kick-started.

A reread of an absolute masterpiece - Night Watch might just be my favourite Discworld novel. Time travel shenanigans give us a glimpse of Ankh-Morpork as it used to be, and pivotal moments of development for several of the series’ beloved characters.

All the little angels rise up, rise up.
All the little angels rise up high!
How do they rise up, rise up, rise up?
How do they rise up, rise up high?
They rise heads up, heads up, heads up, they rise heads up, heads up high!

I enjoyed the chaos of the additional race added in this sequel to Children of Time, but it didn’t hook me in quite the same way.

Finding myself in a sci-fi mood, Children of Time really hit the spot. Epic in scale with incredible world-building, and a narrative that cleverly bounces between 2 very different evolving species. Probably not a book I’d recommend to arachnophobes, though! 🕸️