Daughters of the Sun and Moon, Lisa See

 

Daughters of the Sun and Moon by Lisa See

Started: September 11, 2026
Completed: September 20, 2026
Recommendation: Not recommended
Recommended By: Nobody
Media: Audio

Words for which I sought help:

perspicacity -- the mental ability to see through confusion, understand situations quickly, and make very accurate judgements

Review:

The mental and physical abuse described in this novel are constant.  While I see the value in terms of understanding the suffering of the Chinese women of this time in early California, the violence in this book was something that I really disliked.  It just is not for me.  Torture scenes that simply make things worth rather than forwarding the plot seem unnecessary unless the point is to talk about torture.  I wish I had known that this book focused on a massacre and the unbelievable suffering of these women before I picked it up.

Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay

 

Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay has been in my books to read for so long, I cannot remember why it is there.

Started: August 8, 2021
Completed: September 3, 2026
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Media: ebook/audio

Review:

This book took me forever.  It is a good book.  The beginning is slow and I often grab ebooks when I am sitting in line or just have a minute or two.  This book had a huge cast of characters and an epic story line.  It was just too much to do in dribs and drabs.  When I switched to the audio book, things progressed nicely.  It still wasn't fast because there was so much to remember that I found myself going back and relistening.  In the end, however, having this book on audio meant that I could actually spend time on the story instead of rereading.

Perdido Street Station, China Miéville

 

Perdido Street Station by China Miéville

Started: August 18, 2026
Completed: August 29, 2026
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody
Media: Audio

Review:

This was, in many ways, a book without any redeeming character.  The destruction of basically all of the characters in the book (not necessarily death) was unrelenting.  The prose, however, was excellent.  I just could not stomach the plot and it all unraveled at the end.  It seemed as though the characters which most deserved destruction did not get it, those who seemed to deserve enrichment did not get it and those in between fell either side of the line with little more than randomness.  In that sense it was realistic.  Well written, but hard to walk away thinking of anyone to whom I should provide a glowing recommendation.

The Time Ships, Stephen Baxter

 

The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter is a continuation of HG Wells' short story, The Time Machine.  I'm not thrilled about someone glomming on to someone else's work, but I was curious about this one.  This was authorized by the Wells estate.

Started: July 22, 2026
Completed: DNF
Recommendation: N/A
Recommended By: Nobody
Media: Paperback

Review:

Wells had a certain breathless observational mode.  This book captured that well, but, frankly it is unendurable.  150 pages into 510 and I just could not keep it up.  The book wore me out.

For We Are Many, Dennis E. Taylor

 

For We Are Many by Dennis E. Taylor is the most recent book in the Bobiverse series

Started: March 26, 2026
Completed: August 12, 2026
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody
Media: Audio on CD

Review:

I wondered how far von Neumann machines as a center point for a story could go.  I didn't think very far, but this book is excellent.  It is amazing to me that Taylor keeps coming up with complex and believable ideas on how the future might unroll.  Really enjoyed this book.

Villa Coco, Andrew Sean Greer

 

Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer

Started: July 31, 2026
Completed: August 6, 2026
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: My Wife
Media: Audio

Review:

This book was fun!  There was a bit of a mystery, a bit of romance, and a bit of conniving.  All of that blended together in Greer's odd style to create an enjoyable read.

Senlin Ascends, Josiah Bancroft

 

Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft is the first book in the Books of Babel series.

Started: July 23, 2026
Completed: July 30, 2026
Recommendation: Highly recommended
Recommended By: A reviewer on youtube.
Media: Audio

Review:

I kind of thought that a series about the Tower of Babel would have religious overtones, but this does not have any overt religion (there are some moral lessons, but it doesn't seem to be an allegory or anything like that).  Instead, the tower serves as a backdrop for a search and rescue or mission oriented story.  The character development is interesting, although some characters seem to follow a basic structure, none are particularly strongly correlated with the basic structure.  This was a fun read with plenty of unexpected adventure and largely the story of naïveté graduating into a better understanding of how to work with the world in which one finds ones self.  Bancroft has done a good job with world creation and sets a nice backdrop for the main character to do the things that seem well beyond a school head master.

The Dragon Round, Stephen S. Power

 

The Dragon Round by Stephen S. Power

Started: June 14, 2025
Completed: July 22, 2026
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By:  Power and I chatted on Twitter several (maybe 10?) years ago (I think he was an editor for a book I had enjoyed, but my Twitter account is no more since Musk took over).  He was an interesting person and I wanted to support his work, so I picked up the book.

Media: Trade paperback

Words for which I sought help:

grue -- a shiver or a shudder

penteconter -- An ancient Greek sailing vessel (used for both war and trade) with 50 oars

Review:

I enjoyed this book which is sort of a castaway story.  Parts of the book felt rushed to me, but it is a good story.  The argument for personal revenge is not made as strongly as I would have liked and while it feels like the main characters undergo some growth and character change, as the book comes to its end, it feels like the characters have reverted to form.

Angel Down, Daniel Kraus

 

Angel Down by Daniel Kraus

Started: June 15, 2026
Completed: June 18, 2026
Recommendation: Not recommended
Recommended By: My niece thought that this would be a book I would enjoy (and she gifted it to me!)
Media: Trade Paperback

Review:

My niece would like to have an honest review, which is kind of where I live.  

I did not enjoy this book.  The format is unusual (it is a stream of consciousness book) and the subject matter (in the World War I trenches) was pretty tough.  Moreover, I am trying not to read depressing books.  So, this book, just by virtue of the subject matter was tough for me.  Of course, I have read and enjoyed books that have all of those qualities.

*SPOILERS BELOW*

This book did not reward good behavior (for the most part).  The pair who jump over the trench wall (go over the top) and go to rescue (put out of his misery) the screamer are not particularly good people.  In fact, nobody in the novel is a decent person.  Everyone is busy pursuing his own thing and trying to grind down everyone else.  When push comes to shove, they each show their true colors and the angel is the worst of them all.  I just could not find a redeeming quality in any of the characters, the story line, or the theme.  Of course, war is horrible and each of the characters showed a characteristic of humanity that leads to war.  I just did not enjoy reading about how awful we are.

Stoner, John Williams

 

Stoner by John Williams

Started: June 4, 2026
Completed: June 8, 2026
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: The New Yorker
Media: Audio

Review:

This is a character study book.  The characters are all odd, but not dysfunctionally odd, just odd.  All of them seem to function within the world that they inhabit, but seem unable to traverse between their different worlds very well.  The book is a bit dour, but there is humor to be found.  The interactions seem so realistic to me that it seems Williams has created actual people who could exist nearby.  This book was well worth the read for someone who likes a good turn of phrase and complex character development.

How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It, K.J. Parker

 

How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with it by K.J. Parker

Started: April 17, 2025
Completed: April 21, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody
Media: Audio

Review:

I have enjoyed this series so far.  I did not enjoy this one as much as Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, but that may come from the move away from engineering to theater (both of which I dabbled with in college).  The protagonist's mother was fantastic, but she was only a small part.  The general approach of the book was the same as its prequel, but it was harder to buy that a playwright pulled off all the engineering.  Maybe it was also the novelty that grabbed me so strongly in the first one, but seemed to be missing from this one.  Still a good read!

What We Can Know, Ian McEwan

 

What We Can Know by Ian McEwan

Started: April 11, 2026
Completed: April 17, 2026
Recommendation: Mild Recommendation
Recommended By: Nobody
Media: Audio

Review:

I don't know what to say about this book.  It is well written.  It is composed of two very distinct parts told in two different voices.  They are (as one might expect) related.  The audio version surely helped.  I have to say, however, that the first part was not terribly compelling and I found the second part droll.  Yes, I said it.  I dunno why this is a book of the year.  It is complex and layered.  Maybe I just missed a bunch of stuff, so it gets the mild recommendation based on the quality of the writing which pulled it out of not recommended.  I will surely forget this book soon.

Hell's Heart, Alexis Hall

 

Hell's Heart by Alexis Hall is a retelling of Moby Dick as a science fiction novel

Started: April 1, 2026
Completed: April 11, 2026
Recommendation: Not recommended
Recommended By: I think I just saw a brief review of the book in a newly released list
Media:  Audio

Review:

There are things in this book that I liked.  There was a lot of sex and it felt like Hall seemed compelled to put in more sex, but opted not to do so.  The book itself, captured the feel of Moby Dick as it has frequently been retold, but missed the intimate detail of the process of whaling that was so fundamental to the original.  I'm not finding fault for that (and, surely, the original was painful to read in part due to this unending detail), but I'm just saying that I missed a nod to it.  Mostly, I didn't like the story...I didn't like how it felt 'constructed' instead of as a simple effort to retell a series of events.  I dunno.  Hard to nail down what I did not enjoy and capture it as one thing.

Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, K.J. Parker

 

Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by K.J. Parker (the author is actually Tom Holt, but he writes fantasy under this pseudonym) is the first book in the Siege series

Started: March 24, 2026
Completed: April 1, 2026
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody
Media: Audio

Review:

I really enjoyed the writing style.  The protagonist is self-deprecating while at the same time being remarkably egotistical.  The situation was simultaneously silly and serious.  Even the ways some things were phrased caught me as funny while still being serious:  "She yawned so much it nearly tore her face."  These are not deeply thought out characters with immersive development, but this is a carefully crafted story.  Yes, several of the characters are shallow plot devices, but those devices are very effectively used.  A very fun read.

Heaven's River, Dennis E. Taylor

 

Heaven's River by Dennis E. Taylor is the next book in the Bobiverse series

Started: August 19, 2025
Completed: March 26, 2026
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This is simply another great story.  I really enjoyed the way that Taylor continues to make this series fresh and useful.  It is truly an amazing series and I particularly enjoyed the way that Taylor is looking at how other possible intelligences might exist and how they might interact with humans in general and Von Neuman probes in particular.

Theo of Golden, Allen Levi

 

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

Started: March 4, 2026
Completed: March 13, 2026
Recommendation: Highly recommended
Recommended By: The older of my sisters
Media: Audio

Review:

This book molds and retains an air of hopefulness.  Throughout, there is a sense of forgiveness and kindness to others.  There are rather distinct Christian religious overtones and, frankly, that is not overwhelming or particularly unwelcome.  It feels like any religion could have reasonably been substituted for Christianity insofar as this was not a book that espoused a particular doctrine, but rather the gentleness and respect for others that is espoused by almost all religions today (certain warrior gods clearly excepted).  As such, this book is both a study in humanity (humanness; benevolence) and in seeing people not simply as they are, but as they might be.  In that sense, this book is a beacon for how to treat one-another.

The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother), Rabih Alameddine

 

The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine

Started: January 26, 2026
Completed: March 4, 2026
Recommendation: Not Recommended
Media: Audio
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

The plot line is pretty good, but I found the way the plot developed to be off-putting.  I am OK with a character who does not like himself, but a character who does not know himself?  A character who treats his own internal issues as laugh lines?  Meh.

Heart, Be at Peace, Donal Ryan

 

Heart, Be At Peace by Donal Ryan is a sequel to The Spinning Heart

Started: January 24, 2025
Completed: January 26, 2025
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: The Guardian

Review:

Ryan tells a story of several characters intertwined in a small Irish town.  Once again, he captures the multi-perspective story process well.  I enjoyed hearing the same events from different perspectives with overlapping events being sufficient to carry the story forward without simply retelling the story repeatedly.  Really enjoyed it.

A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry

 

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

Started: January 15, 2026
Completed: January 24, 2026
Recommendation: Recommended
Media: Audio
Recommended By: My brother-in-law via my nephew

Review:

There is a belief that everyone is connected to everyone else in some way.  This book draws out connections, many unlikely but all based on struggle of one form or another.  I don't think that I am giving anything away by saying that the fine balance in the title has many possible references (not the least of which is pictured on the cover--two young children tied to the top of a pole being balanced on the thumb of a performer).  I think also that it refers to the immeasurably small room for error for those close to the poverty line.  The thin room between abject poverty and just poverty is often measured by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  This book explores the resilience of those who survive, the resilience of those who do not, and the striking role that luck plays in the entire process.  The disheartening view of those who must witness others under duress and how they react to the problems and people they see is also explored.  I will say that the stories are presented with compassion and seem to strive for understanding.

The Ferryman and His Wife, Frode Grytten

 

The Ferryman and His Wife by Frode Grytten

Started: January 4, 2026
Completed: January 6, 2026
Recommendation: Recommended
Media: Audio
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This is a very well written story.  It is sad (maybe poignant is better?) and that makes it hard for me to put it on my highly recommended list.  In all honesty, I would like to spend my last day as well as the ferryman does.