February 2026 Reading Wrap Up

19 Mar 2026 2 Comments

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I haven’t been doing as well on my reading recently. I’d like to think my struggle in February had something to do with it being a short month, but actually the month simply slipped by and I wasn’t able to focus as much on my reading as I may have liked. As I sit here in mid-March I’m still struggling to get through books, but that will be an update for a future post.

Book cover for 'The Will of the Many' by James Islington, featuring ancient Greek-style pillars and a dark blue background.
Cover of the book 'Pilgrimage' by Zenna Henderson, featuring a man in a straw hat standing near a farm house with a UFO in the sky.

These are the two books that I read in February. Both were for book club discussions, but I hadn’t finished The Will of the Many in time to make that talk. I actually didn’t finish Pilgrimage: The Book of the People, but gave up on it about halfway through (paid links). I’ll work on getting reviews of these up soon, but here are my star ratings for them:

  • The Will of the Many by James Islington – ★★★★★
  • Pilgrimage: The Book of the People by Zenna Henderson – ★★
Book cover of 'The Everlasting' by Alix E. Harrow featuring intricate floral designs and a central sword element.
Book cover for 'Grievar's Blood' by Alexander Darwin, featuring a central depiction of a humanoid figure and a blue background.
Book cover of 'An Echo in the Bone' by Diana Gabaldon featuring a dark blue background with a leaf design and text indicating it is an international bestseller.

I did make more progress on the books I had wanted to read for February, but just didn’t finish them. I’m more than halfway through The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow. I decided to take a break from the Outlander saga audiobooks and listened to Grievar’s Blood by Alexander Darwin. This is book 2 in The Combat Codes series and I have finished it now, just not in February. I have already returned to book 7 of the Outlander series – I’m sitting at roughly the halfway point in An Echo in the Bone, with a little over 18 hours left to go (paid links).

Cover of the science fiction novel 'A Fire Upon The Deep' by Vernor Vinge, featuring bold text and a futuristic spaceship design.
Book cover of 'The Tainted Cup' by Robert Jackson Bennett, featuring a dark blue background with intricate gold designs, flowers, and a cup illustration.
Cover of 'The Faraway Inn' by Sarah Beth Durst, featuring a whimsical illustration of a cozy inn surrounded by flowers and mystical elements.

Looking back at the books I had planned to read for February, the only ones I didn’t get to were A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge, The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett, and The Faraway Inn by Sarah Beth Durst. I’ve moved two of these onto my to-be-read list for March, but if I don’t get to them then, they’ll have to be pushed further down in my never-ending pile.

Next up are my reading plans for March where I get to pick six books!

Book cover for 'The Faraway Inn' by Sarah Beth Durst, featuring a whimsical inn surrounded by flowers and a mystical atmosphere.
Book cover of 'Seveneves' by Neal Stephenson, featuring a detailed illustration of an eye with a blue glowing element in the center.
Cover of the book 'Dreadful' by Caitlin Rozakis featuring a black castle with swirling tendrils and an open book on a stack of books in front of it, set against a red background.
Cover of the book 'The Tainted Cup' by Robert Jackson Bennett, featuring a dark background with gold illustrations of flowers and a cup, symbolizing themes of mystery and intrigue.
Book cover of 'Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil' by V.E. Schwab, featuring stylized yellow text and a dark background with floral elements.
Book cover of 'Written in My Own Heart's Blood' by Diana Gabaldon, featuring a wax seal and bold red title on a light background.

By the time I get this post published I expect that I will have started The Faraway Inn by Sarah Beth Durst. This is an ARC from Net Galley, so I need to read and review this one soon. Probably next up will be Seveneves by Neal Stephenson because it is long (872 pages), and it is for a book club discussion mid-April. If I am making good progress on that one, then I’ll probably start either Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis (another book club choice) or The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. If my reading goes spectacularly well then maybe I’ll get to the last two on this list: Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab and Written in My Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon (paid links).

I’m doing well with sticking to my new book acquisition rule. Since I read five books in January, that meant that I could pick up four new ones in February. My Fairy Loot subscription book went missing (but still may turn up). I had left a spot open for it on my list and then the other three books that I acquired were:

Cover of the book 'The Tainted Cup' by Robert Jackson Bennett, featuring floral and vine illustrations with a dark blue background and gold accents.
Book cover of 'Seveneves' by Neal Stephenson featuring an eye with a blue light and the text 'SEVENEVES' and 'A Novel'.
Book cover of 'Sea of Charms' by Sarah Beth Durst, featuring a colorful garden pathway leading to the ocean with a sailboat in the background.
  • The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
  • Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
  • Sea of Charms by Sarah Beth Durst

The publisher (Bramble) was kind enough to approve an ARC of Sea of Charms for me. I enjoyed the first book in this series – The Spellshop – by Sarah Beth Durst, but haven’t reviewed it here yet so that will be one of the next reviews that I write (paid links).

Unfortunately my new book acquisition rule means that I can only pick up one new book in March. I’ll have to choose carefully!

January 2026 Reading Wrap Up

04 Feb 2026 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

The beginning of January gave me pneumonia, so while I didn’t feel well and missed work, I DID have more time to read. The second half of the month left me busier though, so I didn’t quite meet my goal of finishing 6 books for the month. These are the books I finished in January:

Since it takes me so long to get to reviews lately, I thought I’d give you a preview of what I thought by listing how many stars I gave my recent reads. Here are my ratings for what I read in January with purchase links:

When I set my reading goals for 2025, I estimated that I could read 6 books a month (72 for the year). Of course, being unrealistic about my reading goals, I then put 9 books on my to-be-read list for January. Even with that, I feel like I did well with my reading, having started 2 additional books from that list, and leaving only 2 that I haven’t started yet.

I’m currently enjoying the trade paperback edition of The Will of the Many by James Islington. I’m about 200 pages into this one. Then my audiobook journey through the Outlander saga continues with #7 – An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon (paid links). I have 26 hours left of 46, putting me around 43% of the way through the book. If I add my progress for these two books up, I think that should count as a sixth book for January.

The two from my unrealistic list that I didn’t get to were Quicksilver by Callie Hart and Alchemised by SenLinYu (paid links). I still want to read these books, so I’ll have to figure out where to squeeze them in.

I’m going to limit my list for February to only 6 books, and half of them are under 400 pages, so maybe I’ll manage to read them all? Of course I have to finish those I’m currently reading too. Here are the books I’m planning to read in February:

  • A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge – 613 pages, e-book – This is a classic science fiction novel that I received from Net Galley quite a while ago. I’m slowly catching up on my review reading.
  • The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow – 320 pages, hardcover – I have read a ton of stellar reviews for this book and am very excited to start it.
  • Grievar’s Blood by Alexander Darwin – 13 hr, 31 min, audiobook – This is the second novel in a series I started a while ago that was a mashup of fantasy and MMA.
  • The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett – 410 pages, e-book – This novel won both the 2025 Hugo and World Fantasy Awards for Best Novel. It is a selection for an upcoming book club discussion.
  • Pilgrimage: The Book of the People by Zenna Henderson – 255 pages, paperback – This is a selection for an upcoming book club discussion and is a classic published in 1961.
  • The Faraway Inn by Sarah Beth Durst – 384 pages, e-book – This is a cozy fantasy novel by the author of The Spellshop and was given to me for review by Net Galley. It will be published on March 31.

I did really well in keeping with my new rule to only buy the number of books I read in the previous month minus one. In December I read 5 books, and then for January I only acquired 4 new ones:

  • Exit Strategy by Martha Wells
  • The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
  • Pilgrimage: The Book of the People by Zenna Henderson
  • Graceless Heart by Isabel Ibanez (Fairy Loot)

You can see that there is significant overlap in my recent reading and the books I needed to obtain. I might have requested a book on Net Galley, but it hasn’t been approved, so it doesn’t count yet!

Coming up later this month on this blog are reviews of Slow Gods by Claire North, Katabasis by R.F. Kuang, and Detour by Jeff Rake and Rob Hart.

What are you reading this week? Are there any new books that you’re looking forward to reading? Let me know in the comments.

2025 Reading Year in Review

27 Dec 2025 1 Comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

It’s the final day of 2025, and that means it’s time to look back on this year’s reading. I didn’t do too badly, finishing 47 books this year. I never seem to quite be able to hit 50, and despite my competitive nature, I’m not going to try to read 3 books today to hit that mark.

I also wanted to end the year by thanking all of you who read this blog! My audience here has been slowly growing, and 2025 marked the best year yet since starting this blog in 2012, with over 5,000 visitors and 7,000 views. December has been the busiest month of 2025, so I’m hoping that momentum will carry over into the new year as I post my backlog of book reviews.

Say what you will about Amazon, but I do always enjoy the statistics that Goodreads puts together with their Year in Books. From that, I discovered that the shortest book I read was The Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal at 33 pages, while the longest was The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon at 1,443 pages (paid links).

Goodreads also tells me that the average book length that I read was 413 pages. This is a little shorter than last year’s average of 481 pages, but I did read more this year than in 2024. You can find my 2024 Reading Year in Review post here.

Books read in previous years:

  • 2024 = 36
  • 2023 = 48
  • 2022 = 39
  • 2021 = 43
  • 2020 = 39
  • 2019 = 43

I also looked back at my Books to Read in 2025 post to see how my reading for the year compared to what I had said I planned to read. Spoiler – it never matches up very well. Of the unrealistic list of 94 books, I read 22 of those. The remaining 25 books I finished in 2025 were added as the year went on. This happens because I have book club picks that come up, new releases I hadn’t thought about, Net Galley review ARCs, and plenty of spur of the moment reading decisions.

Without further rambling, here is a graphic of all the books I read in 2025 (in reverse chronological order):

Here are some additional statistics about what I read in 2025:

  • Science fiction or fantasy genre = 42
  • Historical fiction = 3
  • Mainstream = 2
  • Romantasy = 11
  • Cozy fantasy = 3
  • Non-fiction = 1
  • Classics = 0
  • Audiobooks = 9
  • Graphic novels = 0
  • Part of a series = 24*
  • Stand-alones (or could be read as one) = 23
  • Completed reading of a series OR kept up with the series as each book was published = 8*

* I counted individual books here.

What were the BEST books I read in 2025?

Here are my top three:

Two of these were very recent reads and I don’t know if that has left them at the forefront of my mind when I made these picks or not. They’re each different genres, with two being stand-alones and one the first book in a series.

  • The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong – COZY FANTASY / review here / purchase link here
  • Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh – SCIENCE FICTION / review coming soon / purchase link here
  • A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab – FANTASY / review coming soon / purchase link here

It’s always so hard to pick my favorites, but here are all of my other 5 star reads from 2025 (in a random order):

  • The Book That Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence – FANTASY / review here / purchase link here
  • Daughter of Redwinter by Ed McDonald – FANTASY / review here / purchase link here
  • Recursion by Blake Crouch – SCIENCE FICTION / review here / purchase link here
  • Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros – ROMANTASY / review here / purchase link here
  • Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead – HISTORICAL FICTION / review here / purchase link here
  • Grimm Curiosities by Sharon Lynn Fisher – ROMANTASY / review here / purchase link here
  • A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas – ROMANTASY / review coming soon / purchase link here
  • Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher – FANTASY / review coming soon / purchase link here
  • The Book That Broke the World by Mark Lawrence – FANTASY / review coming soon / purchase link here
  • Orbital by Samantha Harvey – MAINSTREAM / review coming soon / purchase link here
  • The Feeding by Anthony Ryan – HORROR / review here / purchase link here
  • The Nightshade God by Hannah Whitten – ROMANTASY / review here / purchase link here
  • The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab – FANTASY / review here / purchase link here

That’s it for 2025! Coming up in my next post, I’ll be looking ahead at my reading plans for 2026.

What are your favorite books you read in 2025? Let me know in the comments!

2024 Reading Year in Review

14 Jan 2025 1 Comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I’m a bit late with this post, but I still wanted to write up my annual look back at what I read for the year. First off, here is a nice graphic from Goodreads to summarize:

A few other stats that Goodreads provided were that the shortest book I read was The Past is Red by Catherynne M. Valente at 155 pages, while the longest was Lord of Chaos (The Wheel of Time #6) by Robert Jordan at 1,011 pages.

The average book length that I read was 481 pages, although I think this is not a terribly accurate statistic, because I don’t always put the correct edition of what I’ve read into Goodreads.

My total number of books read in 2024 is down a little compared to recent years as you can see below:

  • 2023 = 48
  • 2022 = 39
  • 2021 = 43
  • 2020 = 39
  • 2019 = 43

So what did I read in 2024? Here is a graphic of all 36 books (not quite in reverse chronological order that I read them):

Here are a few more interesting statistics about what I read in 2024:

  • Science fiction or fantasy genre = 28
  • Historical fiction = 4
  • Mainstream = 2
  • Genre fiction with some romance = 14
  • Non-fiction = 2
  • Classics = none
  • Audiobooks = 6
  • Graphic novels = 1
  • Part of a series = 25*
  • Stand-alones (or could be read as one) = 13
  • Completed reading of a series OR kept up with the series as each book was published = 5*

* I counted individual books here.

I’m counting The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo as fantasy and NOT historical fiction, because magic is a significant component of the story. The Outlander series fills out the historical fiction because although these books contain time travel, the plot mostly concerns other aspects.

I made a note that some of these books contained an element of romance, but none were pure romance novels. I often make an effort to read something considered a classic, but I think that the closest I came in 2024 was God Emperor of Dune, and that only fits under classic science fiction by its proximity to the original Dune novel.

What were the BEST books I read in 2024? Here are my top three:

You can find my reviews of each of these, as well as (paid) links if you want to pick up your own copy:

  • Yellowface by R.F. Kuang: review here, link to purchase here
  • The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune: review here, link to purchase here
  • Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros: review here, link to purchase here

Some of my other favorites from the year are below, also with links where applicable:

  • Starter Villain by John Scalzi: review here, link to purchase here
  • Outlander (series) by Diana Gabaldon: reviews (Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn), link to purchase (series) here
  • Starling House by Alix E. Harrow: review here, link to purchase here
  • The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten: review here, link to purchase here
  • The Core by Peter V. Brett: review here, link to purchase (series) here
  • Dawn by Octavia E. Butler: review coming soon, link to purchase here
  • Ever the Night Road by Michael Breen: review here, link to purchase here

Up next will be my look ahead at my reading for 2025: too many books, unrealistic goals, starting more series than I can finish, and much more!

If you are on Instagram, remember to take a look at my bookstagram account there and follow me: @ihazabookproblem

April 2024 Reading Wrap Up

01 May 2024 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I thought that I was over my reading slump from March, but then I only managed to read 3 more books in April. However, for this month I felt like I made more steady progress. When I looked at some of the details, it turns out that I read 2,409 pages for the month, making this my second highest page count per month so far in 2024!

These are the books that I finished in April:

I reviewed The Skull Throne here and Dragonfly in Amber here. I only finished reading The Core, the final book in Peter V. Brett’s Demon Cycle yesterday, but I should have a review up later this week (paid links).

I also read some of the shorter works nominated for the Nebula Awards, so that took more time. However, I’m glad that I did delve back into reading some short fiction, and I have more of that planned in the upcoming months.

I am part of the way into the third book in the Outlander series, Voyager, and I also started book 5 of The Wheel of Time, The Fires of Heaven (paid links).

For the upcoming month of May, I’m hoping to finish a couple of books that I started, but that were larger projects than I originally envisioned. These would be The Anatomy of Story and the Utopia Science Fiction Magazine Five Year Anthology. I need to find a day where I have few distractions so that I can focus more on these kinds of books.

What else is ahead in May? I’ve bumped a couple of the books I had planned for April into this next month, but pushed others back further. I’m still planning to read the 5th book in the Dune series, Heretics of Dune. I’m continuing with several series with The Sandman: Book 3 by Neil Gaiman, Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros, and Jud by Michael Breen (paid links).

I also picked up a new book by one of my recent favorite authors – The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo. Then I have Deep Freeze by Michael C. Grumley planned for a book club (paid links).

How is your reading going for the year? What book are you most excited to read next? Let me know in the comments (above).

2023 Wrap-Up and Best Reads

29 Dec 2023 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

The year has almost come to an end and it’s time to look back at my reading for the year. This is one of my favorite types of posts to write, so let’s get to it! Here is my graphic of all the books I have finished so far in 2023, for a total of 46!

While I had set an unrealistic goal to read 100 books for the year back in this post, 50 is a more reasonable amount for me. As I’m writing this post, I have a few more days remaining in the month, with two more books that I should definitely be able to finish. I may grab a couple of graphic novels or a shorter novel and binge read to see if I can hit 50 by the end of the year.

How did my 2023 reading break down in terms of genre and formats?

  • 20 books were stand-alone fiction novels.
  • 18 were audiobooks.
  • I had one DNF (did-not-finish) book that actually doesn’t appear on this list.
  • 2 were non-fiction, and one of those I hope to finish in the next few days is as well.
  • 2 novels were not in the sci-fi/fantasy genre, and 1 was on the border of genre.
  • I finished (or kept up with) the books in 8 different series.
  • I started to read 5 new series.
  • 3 were graphic novels.

Here are my favorite books from the year with some comments and links to full reviews below:

Rule Of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo
  • Fairy Tale by Stephen King was a wonderful stand-alone fantasy novel (paid link). You can find my review here.
  • I finished listening to The Witcher series (audiobooks) this year with The Lady of the Lake (paid link). While I’ve read that the ending is controversial, I thought it was appropriate to the series. You can read my review here.
  • The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip is an older book and was also a type of fairy tale story (paid link). You can find my review here.
  • In my ongoing read of Leigh Bardugo’s books, my favorites were the Six of Crows duology which I just reviewed here and here, as well as the next two books, Rule of Wolves and King of Scars, which I will be reviewing soon (paid links).
  • I also read Naomi Novik’s Scholomance series, and while I thought that the ending fell a bit flat, the second book, The Last Graduate, was a harrowing read (paid link). My review is here.
  • Babel was a long stand-alone novel but its themes have inspired conversations about real-world events since I read it (paid link). This is a tragic story but was very well-done, and I highly recommend reading it. You can find my review here.
  • Elder Race is a novella that combined science fiction and fantasy into one story and was a nice introduction to this author’s work (paid link). I haven’t had a chance to review it here yet.
  • The two non-genre novels that I read, Where the Crawdads Sing and Horse were both very good, so if you’re looking for a break from sci-fi/fantasy, these are solid reading choices (paid links). My reviews are here and here.
  • Shannon Chakraborty won my reading heart with her Daevabad trilogy which I reviewed here, here, and here (paid links). So when she released the first book in a new series, I had to pick it up immediately. The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi was such a fun adventure story, and I’ll be writing a full review soon. You could also read this as a stand-alone story.
  • The last book on this list is a dieselpunk adventure comic/graphic novel which I just finished this week. Skies of Fire (#1-4) was produced as a Kickstarter and I really enjoyed reading this. I’ll have a review up soon.

Lastly, did I read the books that I had planned to read on my post from the beginning of 2023? The answer to this is always, NO, but where did I go off track? Here are some thoughts on that:

  • I had meant to read more of the Sandman series of graphic novels, but only got through one more in 2023.
  • I also had meant to continue my read-through of The Wheel of Time, but only read book #4 in 2023.
  • I didn’t get to read any more of the Dune books, but there was also a natural end-point after Dune Messiah.
  • There were several series on my list that I’ve been meaning to finish for several years. I still didn’t make any progress on these.
  • I didn’t read any classics in 2023, even though I had a few on my list.

Here is a visual of some of those books that I didn’t get to, but still plan to read soon:

That’s my recap of my reading year for 2023! How did you do in your own goals? What were your favorite books for the year? Let me know in the comments (above).

An Update on Books and Reading Goals

21 Jul 2022 1 Comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I just realized that we are halfway through 2022, so I thought this might be a good time to stop and look back at how the year has been going.

First – reading goals! I had set an unrealistic goal to read 89 books this year, when I normally struggle to get through 50 in that time frame. As of today, I have finished 23 books, which puts me at 23% of that original goal, but not far off the mark for reaching 50 this year.

Here is a graphic of what I’ve read so far in 2022:

Paid links help to support this blog.

My plan to read one book from Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series every month has gone astray, along with reading one Dune book every month. I have made it through half (3 of 6) of the Dune books by the original author, and only 3 of 14 of The Wheel of Time.

As always seems to happen, I have picked up books I didn’t originally have on my 2022 list, and then branched off into new series and authors. I think that for 2023 I will have to focus on finishing some series that I’ve started.

What am I reading now? Look – pretty covers! I am listening to the next book in The Witcher series – The Time of Contempt. On Kindle, I’m reading Lover Unbound, a book in The Black Dagger Brotherhood series which is sort of a guilty pleasure (sexy vampires, yeah), and In a Garden Burning Gold which I received courtesy of NetGalley for review.

After I finish those, next up are these options:

All of these are continuations in a series, except for The Water Dancer. I think I have a series problem!

Which should I read first? Let me know in the comments above. What other books and series have you read this year and enjoyed? Help me add to my ridiculous to-be-read list!

Find my book reviews here.

Book Review – Thin Air

28 Dec 2018 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Thin Air is the latest release from Richard Morgan, author of the Takeshi Kovacs books which were recently adapted for television as the Netflix series Altered Carbon. This new novel is set on a dystopian future Mars, filled with corporate corruption, organized crime, and a dissatisfied and sometimes violent population. Morgan wrote an earlier stand-alone novel set in this same world – Thirteen.

I received a copy of Thin Air through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Thin Air

The story in Thin Air follows ex-corporate enforcer Hakan Veil as he awakens from his annual genetically mandated hibernation cycle. His life is simple at the outset as he takes jobs with a variety of not-so-legal organizations to pay for his existence on Mars, hoping someday to be able to return to Earth and the job he was born for. Veil had worked as an overrider, essentially a security officer who would stay in cryosleep on board a ship unless there was a problem. After a disastrous mission, Veil lost his career and has been marooned on Mars.

When he awakens, Veil is running hot–a state in which all of his functions are amplified, but with poor impulse control and a tendency to leap at any chance for violence and sex. He initially takes his revenge on a local establishment for what they had done to a client of his prior to his hibernation. Veil is arrested by the Bradbury PD, but while he awaits release, Earth oversight launches an investigation into widespread corruption on Mars.

Veil is released early by the police to help keep an eye on one of the investigators, Madison Madekwe. Mars runs a lottery in which the winner gets a free trip back to Earth, but one of the most recent winners vanished before claiming his prize. Veil is charged with keeping Ms. Madekwe safe while she looks into the disappearance of the lottery winner.

Before Veil can discover much about his charge, an unknown party attempts to assassinate him at the same time that Ms. Madekwe is abducted. From there, the plot becomes more convoluted. Veil pulls in favors and meets with old friends to try to discover Ms. Madekwe’s location, solve the mystery of the missing lottery winner, and hopefully earn himself a trip back to Earth.

This book was an exciting read, but I found myself wanting a little more explanation of the technology and this semi-terraformed Mars. I had trouble orienting myself to some aspects of this world. For example, I never really figured out how much Mars had been terraformed and why or how certain parts were inhabitable when it sounded like other places were not.

I think that the ending of the story could possibly be seen as a deus ex machina, but I didn’t mind it. Veil has a large enough part in the concluding events for it to be satisfying. However, this is also not a story about a moral victory, and the outcome of the book is more neutral in that sense.

If you liked the Takeshi Kovacs books, you’ll probably like Thin Air. The high level of violence, language, and sex is similar to Morgan’s other work. He writes a similar character with Hakan Veil, and the plot is full of twists, betrayal, and action. So while this is not my favorite book by the author, I did enjoy it for those aspects.

Have you read any of Richard Morgan’s books? Did you watch Altered Carbon on Netflix? Let me know in the comments.

Find my other book reviews here.


Book Review – The Darwin Elevator

21 Dec 2018 2 Comments

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , ,

I’ve been sick this week, so while I just finished reading the latest book by Richard K. Morgan (Thin Air) yesterday, I haven’t had time to write up my thoughts. I’m going to be posting some older book reviews that are no longer on their original sites. The first one is for The Darwin Elevator by Jason M. Hough.

I met Jason several years ago at the World Fantasy Convention, and he had just acquired an agent at that time. When his Dire Earth Cycle was published by Del Rey in 2013, it was unique in that all three books were completed, being released in close succession. Readers could enjoy the entire series without a long wait between books.

Darwin Elevator

I’m not sure where this review originally appeared, but here it is:

In the debut novel by Jason M. Hough, humanity has fallen on hard times after the mysterious arrival of an alien space elevator in Darwin, Australia. While first heralded as a promising technology, the elevator’s appearance is followed by a plague that turns the majority of those affected into feral sub-humans, if it doesn’t kill them outright. Only the protective Aura encircling the elevator can prevent the disease from infecting and transforming the population. The underlying cause of the disease is unknown, but a few rare souls are immune to its effects. By the time the novel opens, nearly all of humanity has either died from the plague, been converted to a sub-human, or found refuge in the disease-free ring of land and space encompassed by the elevator’s Aura.

Skyler Luiken is one of those fortunate immunes, and since he can travel outside the Aura without a sealed suit, he makes his living as a scavenger of earth’s former civilizations, recovering items requested by those restricted to Darwin. His small team runs into trouble when the elevator loses power at the same time that Skyler’s ship crosses the Aura on their return from a routine mission. His ship is subjected to a search and his crew draws the suspicion of Russell Blackfield, prefect of Nightcliff, a fortress built to guard the base of the alien elevator.

Humans also live on a series of orbital habitats, tethered along the elevator. They grow food for all mankind, while Nightcliff fortress oversees the exchange of this food for air and water from below. One of the Orbitals, scientist Dr. Tania Sharma, has developed a theory that the alien Builders are set to return in the very near future. Together with Neil Platz, the entrepreneur who built many of the human additions along the elevator, Tania launches a secret investigation into the aliens’ imminent return.

Tania’s research leads her to recruit Skyler to retrieve data from abandoned astronomical facilities. In the course of his missions, Skyler draws more scrutiny down upon himself and his crew from the overbearing Russell Blackfield. Tension builds as repeated malfunctions in the elevator and political wrangling both threaten the fragile economy of Darwin. At the same time, the sub-humans are becoming more aggressive and dangerous to those outside the Aura, or even on its periphery.

The world that Hough has built in this book was very easy to visualize, and the plot kept me guessing with abundant tension and action that never became exhausting. After a few unforeseen surprises in the plot, I was truly enjoying myself. The vivid characters presented a realistic mix of cultural backgrounds, with both male and female personalities shining in their roles. For me, Russell Blackfield’s actions became a bit over-the-top as the novel progressed, but it did not detract from the rest of the story.

The Darwin Elevator shows marvelous skill for a new author and was one of the best books that I’ve read all year. It is the first volume in The Dire Earth Cycle, but fortunately you don’t have to wait for the next book – the remaining two volumes have already been released. I have the second book, The Exodus Towers, in my hands already.

It looks like Hough has written two sequels to the trilogy as well. I’ll have to pick those up soon. I also reviewed Zero World, a stand-alone novel here. Have you read any of this books? Let me know in the comments!

Find my other book reviews here.


Book Review – The Temporal Void

14 Dec 2018 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , ,

The Temporal Void is the second book in the Void series by Peter F. Hamilton, continuing the science fiction epic. I listened to the audio version of this book, read by John Lee.

Temporal Void

I enjoyed this book more than the first volume (The Dreaming Void) in the series. I think this was because I had already struggled to regain my familiarity with the world of the Commonwealth in the first book, and now felt more comfortable with the details and characters by this second installment. You can read my review of The Dreaming Void here.

The plot in this book picks up right after the events at the end of the first. I think that reactions to this book will depend upon how much you like Edeard and his story, as his life and its challenges feature as the central plot of this volume. His adventures as a constable in Makathran take on more serious stakes as new enemies and conspiracies emerge. It is also clear that Inigo’s dreams that inspired the cult-like Living Dream movement in the Commonwealth are the episodes of Edeard’s tale, watched and relived by the its citizens.

Throughout book one, I wondered about how Edeard’s plot would fit in with the rest of Hamilton’s characters and ideas. When I discovered that these were what had inspired Living Dream, I still couldn’t figure it out. I enjoyed Edeard’s tale, but at its heart, it was nothing more than a coming-of-age story. I didn’t believe that it would lead a semi-religious group to mount a feat as great as the pilgrimage into the Void, especially in the face of the risks to themselves and the rest of the universe. By the end of this book, I understood why Living Dream was enamored with Edeard, and through him, the Void. I appreciate the ideas that the author is using, but I don’t want to go into this more because of spoilers.

The rest of The Temporal Void consists of two other main plots: 1) that of the factions who are making secret moves to hinder the pilgrimage or exploit its distractions for their own gains, and 2) the story of Araminta, a young entrepreneur who has recently discovered herself to be the second dreamer, a person prophesied to lead the pilgrimage into the Void.

I found myself less interested in the different factions, and more excited by Araminta’s story. She manages to stay one step ahead of Living Dream and the faction agents who want to use her for their own ends, using her ingenuity to avoid capture. I’m not sure what she will end up doing in the end, but I find her to be a well-drawn character who persists in trying to live her own life in spite of her situation.

Overall, this was a great book and I’ve already started the final volume. I enjoy this narrator as well, and always appreciate it when the same person narrates one author’s books.

Have you read anything by Peter F. Hamilton? Which are your favorites? Let me know in the comments!

Find my other book reviews here


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