Welcome to the newly revived reading blog. I’ve been absent here for a long, long time, but lately I’ve been updating readers of my newsletter with my voracious and sometimes eccentric reading practices. If you’re coming here from the newsletter, um, welcome! It’s pretty much the same stuff. You can expect mostly positive things about books I like. Don’t expect super-long reviews, but I DO love sharing my insights.
Award reading is over for me now that the Nebula votes are in. That left me drifting in the TBR piles a little, but don’t worry, I found some books to cling to. I’ll be fine. Reading this week has included Locklands, Purgatory Ridge, and let’s talk a little about Defekt.
Locklands, by Robert Jackson Bennett
Locklands is the third book in Robert Jackson Bennett’s Founders Trilogy. It leaves behind the cool heist feel that I loved from the first one and focuses mostly on fighting a big old war. It’s not my favorite of his books, but it is a solid end to the trilogy. It ramps up the cyberpunk-with-magic vibe of the previous books and really has a “what if we were living in a simulation but we could hack the world” kind of feel. Definitely worthwhile, but if you haven’t read anything of his, start with the Divine Cities.
Explore Some Indie Books
Tons of great indie books out there. Finding them can be tricky, but these giveaways are a great place to start. Proceed:
Purgatory Ridge by William Kent Krueger
You know I love me some Minnesota thrillers. This is the third in the Cork O’Connor series, and I’m really starting to get into the characters. There are some places in this book where a person has to make a serious effort not to think too hard, but I’ve always said that great characterization can cover many flaws.
Krueger really catches a lot of Minnesota when he writes these books. It’s a part of Minnesota that’s both familiar and strange to me. I recognize a lot of the traditions, but things are different way down here in southern Minnesota. I mean, the only lakes we have are man-made.
Defekt by Nino Cipri
I just wanted to briefly drop in and say of Defekt that it’s achieved a very lofty position on my reading list. It is now a book that I liked so much I made my wife read it.
And she liked it.
If you haven’t read Finna, pick that up first, but they’re both great books and you can really read them in any order.
Coming Soon…
I’m about 20% into Perdido Street Station right now, and it’s SO dark. Good, but dark. I’m excited to get through this one so I can let you know what I think.
I’ve also just started a book called The Shame Machine, which is also kinda dark, but in a real life sort of way.
Let me know what you’re reading in the comments. Have you read any of these books here? What books should I find next?