2023 resolutions - 'fox's reads

Apparently I didn't update my '22 thread since about June! I know the year had become busy and both reading and reviewing were effected, but I hadn't realized it had become that bad! I did still manage to read over 100 (listed I may have missed some as I've just been busy and not updated properly), nearly all SF or F.

We'll see how I do this time. At least I got off to a good start: Over the festive period I did manage some reading - 4 hours on a train each way certainly helps. And although I spent 9 days with family which was great fun (and full of food) there was enough downtime to get a few more pages in.

Heirs of the blade which is book 7 of AC's Shadows' of the Apt series. I've been enjoying all of these, but haven't managed to review any of them. Occasionally the link between powers/insects becomes a bit tenuous/variable and I'm not quite sure he ever really worked out the details, but just goes with wherever it leads.

dead past book 4 in the Dianne Fallon forensic crime series, which I started because Diane does some recreational caving - this only really features in book 3, but they're fun nonetheless. The premise of the a museum having a crime level forensics lab is somewhat unbelievable, but if you accept that it works ok.

the hollows books 1-4 Urban fantasy, one of the classics that I'd never read before. Slightly dark and intense but works well, limiting it to just vamps, weres, witches pixies and elves was a good thing - often there's too many types to keep track of.

Santathing brought me two new authors, Clare mackintosh and susan dennard which I'm also looking forward to.

Hippo Gnu Ear!

Happy reading in '23!

Looking forward to reading about your reads! May this year bring the best ones yet.

>1 reading_fox: I'm glad you haven't given up! Happy New Year, and I hope your 2023 reading year is a memorable one for all the right reasons.

Happy New Year and wishing you great reading.

Happy New Year! I hope 2023 will bring good things to you in books and in life.

Happy New Year and happy new thread!

Happy New Year and happy reading!

Hope 2023 is wonderful in reading and other things.

Thanks everyone!

First book finished - the last party A wise santathing gift, much enjoyed. Small welsh village has the body of a rich english business man wash ashore during their New Year's swim. The local detective must work with an english counterpart to find the guilty party - and nearly everyone was at the same NYE party the night before. Well written. fun. Good characters and setting.

>12 reading_fox: Direct hit! Unfortunately, there are 117 people ahead of me on the hold list for the print and 75 ahead of me for the ebook. Still, I'll get it eventually :)

The martian much recommended to me, I watched the film on an aeroplane to somewhere (rare!) but never got around to reading the book. Fun fast paced, not exactly believable, Martin lurches from disaster to disaster and never gets depressed! The film was quite a good representation from what I remember.

Mortal Heart urban fantasy ER. A clever move from the author, this is a spinout from her established universe. The hero and heroine appear to have played bit parts in that, and now have a novel of their own. A bit to full on graphic sex to be comfortable, and I'm not keen on the whole demon taking over the world scenarios, but it's well written with sassy characters and good repartee.

>14 reading_fox: I thought the movie was one of the best adaptations of a novel I've seen in a while. Was it exactly the same, no, but sure was close enough for me.

broken angels re-read. I have the final part now and wanted to remember a bit out Kovacs - violent and graphic but still fun. Kovacs deserts from the local war he'd been conscripted to and goes hunting an intact alien artifact.

a lonely demon poor ER title, clunky too long very much Tell rather than show and surprisingly misanthropic given the target audience was probably teenage girls.

dead hunt book 5 of Dianne Fallon - remains good, better than the last even though there's no caving. Tracing an escaped prisoner who's cleverer than average.

The Air War Tchaikovsky's Epic Fantasy instalment 8. Another battle for the city, this time with the emphasis on modern (ish) aircraft. The more often they repeat it the more ludicrous the 'clockwork' technology of the engines sounds, but now there are alternatives. The characters are good, the setting inventive, we've moved away from different types of kinden and are back focussing on broader themes. Still enjoyable.

Many reads since ^ I'm at least reading, and mostly reviewing, this thread might take somewhat of random appearance from time to time with highlights.

Storybundle Schools of Magic, has provided a couple of OK stories so far, it's a subgenre I'm quite keen on.

schooled in magic portal fantasy to another world, where a teenager has to learn magic from scratch, and defeat necromancers. Massive plothole towards the end.
hundred halls at least the first 3. Orphan sisters enter famous Hundred Halls of magic to live up to their parents' reputation.

Both of these are the start of 20+ series, and I'm not sure the premise will stretch anywhere near that far.

truthwitch - from Santathing - nice fantasy with 'threads' connecting people's destinies. Few can see them, and none their own. But the Truthwitch can see the truth in everyone's statements (or at least earnest belief, so less useful than you might think). Interesting world needs a bit more explaining.

ER titles. connection game, Foul is fair, the double edged sword Really didn't like CG - a bit like wizard of the pigeons playing with mental illness and unreliable narrators rather than giving them understanding and respect. FF and DES were good, the latter just an episodic novella with a swordsman making a living as best he can, the former a bit too paranormal romance for me, A serious Witch tracking werewolves far above her abilities.

Woken furies last of the Kovacs trilogy, more violence and sex, but little plot, only tenuously connected to the first two.

rise of the firebird ER title. Completition of the trilogy I've now read entirely through ER - thanks publishers for this - although I wouldn't have read it if I had to pay for it. Superpower fantasy crossover, with an interesting mix of fairy tale riffs thrown in for good measure. I think the over-the -top power levels never really worked for me.

Flame another of the storybundle Magic School entries - two sisters raised in a dragon wood, one befriends a wild dragon the other runs away. Somehow the dragons never really worked Not believably large enough to fit in the woods etc.

Fated Superb, Harry Dresden in London, but as a curio shop owner rather than a PI. Same idea of dark and Light Council, with them as a rogue looking after the little person. He's a diviner able to see the futures, but with little magical blasting might. I really enjoy a clever hero over a powerful one, and this was well done. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

Moon called and blood bound start of the Mercy Thompson Urban fantasy (probably heading into paranormal romance). I picked up an addendum to the series >14 reading_fox:, and this is the beginning of the story. Probably better I always enjoy low key heroes more than superpowers.

Project Hail Mary Although it's a different person/story and setting from Martian the hero is basically the same annoyingly talkative jerk, and one was enough. Mostly hard sf, but as usual physicists really don't get biology (and vice versa), and while I've only a passing appreciation of either, the handwavium interface was also annoyingly wrong throughout.

war master's gate and the seal of the worm The conclusion to Tchaikovsky's 10 part Epic Fantasy. Well worth it! A lovely mix of technology and magic, politics and war. ingenuity and strength peopled with diverse characters rising to their own challenges. Best of all there's no irredeemable evil, merely differing points of view on what is right. Not all the books are as good as the first, but it never dips too deeply either.

Here we are already nearly another month on. Where does time go? and How did I used to be able to keep this and my reivews up to date?

At least the reading happens, even if the thinking about it, not quite so much.

two ER titles right time wrong place which was DNF, yes that bad. and shadow beasts which was much better and luckily the 2nd is in the ER stack too. New librarian finds that there's more to the job than expected, and a mini-dragon familiar is just the start. Not quite as good as it sounds, somewhat rushed, but enjoyable fun.

Prador moon and the soldier I thinking I'm giving up on Asher. tried a few, really quite liked a short story collection but the novels don't really work for me. Too much blowing things up, and not enough clever characters. Of similarity to the AI in Banks' works but I didn't like those either.

Recommend me some SF!

the tower and the fox and the unexpected enlightenment of rachel griffin two fun Magic school YA from storybundle, I liked nearly all of this set. Different takes different themes, different companions, but still annoying kids, strict teachers and unexpected consequences.

queenslayer and crownbreaker the last of the spellslinger series. I'm not sure I've reviewed any of them, but they're all great fun, young kid living by his wits (and a furry pet) against much more powerful people, ending up in quite high flying roles through happenstance and timing. Worth reading the whole set.

More ER - Shadow charms the sequel the beasts above. Equally too rushed, but could be fun. desolation very poor covid-alike and the best hawk and the hound a werewolf/witch romeo/juliet retelling quite enjoyed.

the vela because Chambers, but it's not cosy SF at all, political refugee war. Four authors collaborating pretty smoothly together.
drowned country finally Tesh's 2nd novella and as good as Silver country although I needed to reread it first. - I also have her new novel which I'm keen to get to.

The Killing God also needed the series re-reading. I used to do this strictly but I find I'm more eager to read new books now, and trust the author to bring me along. Donaldson probably deserves to be reread. This isn't his best work, but it's still better than most. Epic fantasy with conflicted characters.

red sauce brown sauce which makes perfect sense to the UK readers, and probably won't to foreigners! a cyclist tours the uk inspecting trying and commenting on the regional/national variations of our staple breakfasts. Not much cycling discussion happens but the food writing was interesting. With recipes.

>24 reading_fox: I have Red sauce brown sauce on kindle. I like Felicity Cloake's pieces for the Guardian so I'm looking forward to the book.

>25 Sakerfalcon: - does very much have the feel of some newspaper magazine articles worked together into a longer piece.

Some more ER titles - the alice curse was clever, but a bit too gratuitous for my tastes. I've read a couple of these now, and they're not quite clever enough.

shards of earth I think I'll just go ahead and buy everything AC writes. destroyer aliens can be influenced by telepathy, but the telepath would ratehr hang out with his friends.

embargoed by rachel churcher her next book is in beta preview, and may go down a published (rather than self-pub) route, so even the title may change. I wasn't as keen on it as her previous works, but then it's not quite my genre - a university heartbreak story with angels.

some desperate glory Tesh wrote a couple fo novellas that were distributed by TOR and much loved. This is her first full length novel. It's an SF mil/queer/space opera/ and absolutely wonderful despite the time travel. Earth has been destroyed and the last rebels have been born and raised to continue the fight, even if millions of humans living elsewhere don't see the need. (Val)Kyr will be the best, until she realises that an alien is a person too. Superb read it!

>26 reading_fox: I enjoyed Shards of earth too. I have the sequel and need to get to it soon before I forget the first book!

Glad to hear that you loved Some desperate glory because it too is sitting on Mount Tbr!

>26 reading_fox: I just took a bullet on Shards of Earth. Good shooting!

Well that was a spectacularly rubbish year's updating thread. It's not that I stopped reading, or even reviewing, but just never got around to commenting on here.

A summary!
121 books read (I think). Which is actually higher than the past few years, and a pleasant surprise. Benedict Jacka and adrian tchaikovsky being two new finds who's works I've devoured over the year along with patricia briggs as always a mix of SF and urban fantasy. A few re-reads of the ever excellent Janny Wurts as her conclusion to the Wars of Light and Shadow is due to be published in May '24 - 30 years? of work in a single epic series only 11 books long. As usual, despite my initial intensions I managed to read very few non-fiction. I think based on my tags, I had 35 ER wins, and more than usual (more than half!) were actually ok-good. Foul is fair, greyhowler and drowning in the desert were the best.

I think I'm not gong to have a dedicated 24 thread, and just create a general reading notes thread for occasional updates. I'm still aiming to review all my books (Up to 1851 now!) and that will be my primary form of commenting.

That's a lot of reading! Happy New Year.

>29 reading_fox: Happy New Year, always a pleasure when you are here.

Happy new year!