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rapid fire book roundup
Saturday, 26 September 2026 12:14The Tales of Dunk and Egg #1-3 by George R. R. Martin: ★★★ averaged. My ranking would be The Hedge Knight > The Mystery Knight > The Sword Sword. It was really fun to be in the ASOIAF universe again, but the only thing that moved me the way main ASOIAF did was Baelor Breakspear taking Dunk’s side. Sorry. Are there no true knights among you?? There are some fun dynamics going on in #2 and #3 (for example: “Be my dog, Ser.”) but I don’t think they quite capture the spirit of the first. I hope more of these get published eventually but I will actually end up on the news if that happens before The Winds of Winter. If. If!
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir: ★★ though in retrospect maybe 2.5 stars? I picked this up in advance of seeing the movie (which I think is probably superior). This was sort of fun, but I deeply hate Weir’s writing style. His prose is like a reddit post come to life. Eva Stratt is a character of all time, though. Practical ladies with a cold disposition are so sexy. Also if I think about Rocky being alone in space for several decades I kind of want to cry but OMG Andy Weir please develop an elevated sense of prose. PLEASE.
The Murderbot Diaries #2-3 by Martha Wells: ★★★ Overall I think? I liked #2 better than #3, mainly because of the addition of the ship character ART. Really fun dynamic there with Murderbot. I listened to these as audiobooks at work, specifically the audio drama version with sound effects and shit. Delightful. I will revisit this series and hit the next books eventually.
The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater: ★★★. Man, Maggie Stiefvater is so gifted at vivid character portraits. Edgar Gilfoyle, June Hudson, and Tucker Rye Minnick are all deeply compelling and could walk right off the page into your living room! However, Maggie Stiefvater also almost always treads just one step too far into corniness. You can spend 30 pages at a time disappearing into this story, only for one off sentence to rip you right out. Anyways. Somehow the hottest fictional couple on earth to me is a luxury hotel manager and a disillusioned FBI agent. The weird well-water magic in this universe gave me latent Tuck Everlasting nostalgia.
You don't have to polish the bullets for me. Just fire them.
Windhaven by GRRM and Lisa Tuttle: ★★★ The Winds of Winter drought led me to explore some of GRRM’s other works. This is sort of like a very light sci-fi collection of novellas about a world of small islands interconnected by messengers who made wings out of the scraps of their crashed space ship that landed them on the planet. Which is explained by one throwaway line halfway through the book. GRRM really has an issue with saying one random thing that is 10x more interesting than the actual plot of what you are reading. I found the protagonist of these novellas deeply irritating, but many of the side characters were pretty intriguing. Maximum Ride for adults?
The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier: ★★★ The last 15-20% of this book really turned me around on it! [Spoliers] The reveal that there is a third anomaly plane about to be shot out of the sky by a missile sent me into hysterics. I often struggle with the prose in translated fiction; no way for me to know if this sparse, direct style is the flair of the author or the result of an over-literal translation. Also enjoyed the experimental formats re: interview transcripts, emails, reports, etc. A fun one overall!
Five Ways to Forgiveness by Ursula K Le Guin: ★★★★ MY GOAT IS BACK IN THE PASTURE!!!!! Picked up a gorgeous newer edition of this while on a friendship trip in Portland, Maine (because I technically already own this in the big UKLG tome). I started reading it that night and finished it in 2 days, in between eating delicious crab cakes and visiting lighthouse museums. A book that makes you go Man Ursula K Le Guin Just Has It. ‘It’ Being The Juice, The Mojo, The Ability…The Flair!!! This book is set during the end of slavery on two planets, dealing with the impossibly complicated fallout. Two of my new favorite Hainish Cycle characters are in here. UKLG is so talented at convincing me that people who have known each other for less than 50 pages have fallen in love. Or changed irrevocably. I know this used to be Four Ways to Forgiveness, and the Five story was added later. Controversially I think the first four are all that were needed!
What is one man’s and one woman’s love and desire, against the history of two worlds, the great revolution of our lifetimes, the hope, the unending cruelty of our species? A little thing. But a key is a little thing, next to the door it opens. If you lose the key, the door may never be unlocked.
“Everybody, everybody in this world has a bullet in them, or whipping scars, or a leg blown off, or a dead baby in their heart,” she said. “Now you’re one of us, Envoy. You’ve been through the fire.”
The Telling by Ursula K Le Guin: ★★★ My experience with Five Ways to Forgiveness prompted me to immediately break my rule of only one Ursula work per year (in an attempt to prolong the arrival of my sadness over her being dead and therefore having no more beautiful work for me to explore). This one was deeply moving at the strangest moments. Another lovely meditation on what it means (or what it costs) to live for the betterment of yourself and others, to preserve the truth, to do the most right thing you can. The slow unpeeling of the protagonist's past, the steady descent down the rabbit hole of the planet’s central government’s repression of ‘The Telling,’ and a single moment where (spoiler) someone walks on air got me!! It got me, okay!!! [Shall I read The Complete Orsinia next?]
His life, Pao's life. Those were the intangible, incalculable stakes. The money burned to ashes, the gold thrown away. Footsteps on the air.
Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb: ★★★ (3.75) Another sufferer of Robin Hobb Trilogy Finale Disease (aka: a lengthy slog which dwells on itself and its circumstances repeatedly, and has dialogue that goes one step too far into cornball territory on one too many occasions). But what can I say, this world and these characters are sooooo juicy to me. I still think the basic concept of a liveship is extremely baller. Paragon also surpassed Wintrow as my favorite Liveship Traders character. Finally having Kennit's past come together and all the disparate threads converging in the final third of this book simply ruled. And the few moments of FitzFool Trurtherism that bled through into this story made me feel crazy. Did you fuxxking know that all of history balances on an affair of the human heart???????? Because I did...I do…
You think it is yours. But you're wrong. By right, that pain is mine. Give it back to me.
Fool’s Errand by Robin Hobb: ★★★★★ Proof that it is possible for Robin Hobb to stop pissing me off! Stick with me here: Orson Scott Card famously wrote in the foreword to Speaker for the Dead that explaining the circumstances and tragedy of its protagonist was simply impossible as an opening chapter, making the novel unwritable. Instead, he wrote Ender's Game, and made Speaker for the Dead its sequel. Anyone familiar with my tastes in sci fi would know that I love Speaker for the Dead about twelve times as much as I love Ender's Game, but even I must admit that the book wouldn't work, wouldn't move me so much, wouldn't be so tragic without its predecessor. I feel similarly about Fool's Errand (and hopefully about the rest of the Tawny Man trilogy to come). Every thread I felt was woefully un-tugged in the Farseer Trilogy has come alive in this book. Characters that once grated against me are now compelling enough to earn my sympathies. Honestly, I never enjoyed Fitz all that much before reading this novel. But I couldn't enjoy him as he is now without having been so annoyed with him in trilogies before! What Hobb has done with her main protagonist here is masterful. Fitz is more interesting and heart-wrenching than ever. And the Fool! The Lord Golden/servant Tom farce is such a juicy reversal and forces the reader to examine an old relationship from an entirely new angle. Nighteyes matured so charmingly. And I almost fell out of my seat when I realized Fitz and Dutiful had washed up on Others Island. What a cool link to Liveship Traders...all these characters are like horrible little cousins to me!!!!!!
He knew I was still his. So did I.
The Golden Fool by Robin Hobb: ★★★ Second book of the trilogy disease. A little bit less fun than the first in the trilogy, but I will let it pass due to obviously being the transitory middle of the story where vast amounts of set-up happen. Thanks for the Lady Patience crumbs, and the Bingtown updates. This is mainly a book about how you can never beat the gay allegations.
Fool’s Fate by Robin Hobb: ★★★★ (3.75). Of all the Robin Hobb trilogies I have read, this is the finale least afflicted with Robin Hobb Trilogy Finale Disease. I got worried when the most exciting thing (for me) was happening and there were still 300 pages left in the book. The back third was a bit of a slog as I expected but was still pretty fun. Anyways, the Fool is one of the most fun characters ever put to the page. Love his ass forever!!! I have decided to end my Realm of the Elderlings readership here. I actually don’t want to know what happens to these people anymore. What I do want is a prequel trilogy about Chivalry/Patience/Burrich!!!! SHOW ME THE LOVE TRIANGLE.
With you, I was a child.
A time, rather than a place. No road led there anymore.
The Sluts by Dennis Cooper: ★★ Reading this on my lunch breaks at work did make me feel like I should be arrested. I’m sure I was supposed to get something out of this but I simply didn’t. Similar feeling I got from Otssea Moshfegh’s Lapvona.
Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel: ★★★★ Definitely a bit of middle-of-the-trilogy-syndrome with this one, but amazing nonetheless. Cromwell soaring higher and higher in the royal court + getting closer and closer to the king makes for a very compelling plot. All that combined with the fall of Anne Boleyn at his hands…juicy!
You can be merry with the king, you can share a joke with him. But as Thomas More used to say, it's like sporting with a tamed lion. You can tousle its mane and pull its ears, but all the time you're thinking, those claws, those claws, those claws.
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel: ★★★★★ God this blew my socks off. I really didn’t think Wolf Hall could be topped, but Hilary Mantel is a titan!! This thing is 800 pages of pure unadulterated dread. You can feel the floor falling out from beneath Thomas Cromwell even as he climbs to new heights. At this point in my life he is like an uncle to me - I feel like someone I know has died! And he’s been dead for 486 years!! Anyways. The final paragraphs of this book (and thus the entire series) took my breath away. I really cannot describe how skilled a writer Hilary Mantel is - her prose is clever and beautiful and cryptic and confident all at once. The triangular relationship between Cromwell, King Henry, and Cardinal Wolsey is still the heart of this series despite the fact that the Cardinal died about 1,200 pages ago. He’s still there, haunting the narrative. You don’t even have to do yaoi because whatever the hell they have going on is even juicier.
“Sooner or later,” he warns the king, “all such men grow desperate, and then they turn to necromancy.” I also, he thinks. I sit at my desk day after day, waiting for the cardinal to whisper in my ear.
A giant is not used to inaction. Nor is my lord Privy Seal. This frustration, this constraint, as the last of the leaves fall and the early frosts begin, takes him back to his early life, before Bolster was thought of, and before he set foot on the ladder to rise in the world: before he knew there was a ladder: back to the days when other people were in charge of his fate: before he knew there was fate.
