Number 32: The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For by Cameron Reed (Short Story)

Set in a future corporate dystopia where body changes like those in Altered Carbon are common for the rich but the pyramid of needs is rubble for the poor.

The favoured adoptee of a CEO narrates as she is lifted out of poverty and dangles on the precipice of loosing it all.

https://reactormag.com/the-girl-that-my-mother-is-leaving-me-for-cameron-reed/

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Number 31: The Fortunate Fall by Cameron Reed

A cyberpunk novel at a human scale I wish I'd read 30 years ago.

From a seemingly dull question about why nobody really remembers a genocide to a world-altering denouement, the protagonist, Maya, narrates her story as a camera; equipped to broadcast all she sees, hears and feels, whilst receiving feedback from her audience.

Summed up by a quote from Jeanette Winterson, "Why is the measure of love loss?"

https://torpublishinggroup.com/the-fortunate-fall/?isbn=9781250326690&format=trade

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Number 30: Awakened by Laura Elliott

I know Laura from the online ME community, her writing on disability and her lovely cats. The book features good representation of ME & disability.

It was a challenge for me to get into, the protagonist's 'voice' took a while to click, but once it did, I raced through, eager for more clues to what was really going on in the Tower of London after the neuro-chip apocalypse. Can the surviving scientists fix what they did?

https://angryrobotbooks.com/books/awakened/
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Numbers 27-29: The Wool Trilogy by Hugh Howey - adapted into the TV series Silo

A truly engaging, character driven storyline. Mostly follows the story of Jules, an engineer who finds herself asked to be sheriff in a self-contained underground world where mention of wanting to go out is a death sentence.

Other characters' stories fill out the how, when and why.

Everything from psychology to the water & nutrient cycle by way of the value of oral history and artisanal trades features.#ReadIn2025

Numbers 23-26: The Wheel of Time Books 11-14 Knife of Dreams, The Gathering Storm, Towers of Midnight and A Memory of Light, by Robert Jordan and Brendan Sanderson.

I feel a little bit like Samwise Gamgee at the end of The Lord of The Rings when he walks into the house to Rosie and says, "Well, I'm home."

We all know where it's going, we just aren't sure precisely which characters will survive.

Editing/style change gripe in next post...

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Numbers 21 & 22: The Wheel of Time Book 10 Crossroads of Twilight and New Spring, both by Robert Jordan.

Crossroads was almost workman like, shifting armies and characters about the map. I also think I'm reaching the limits of what I remember from my first read through (prior to the publication of 12-14).

Suggestions on the internet were that New Spring, contained spoilers, and suggested not reading it first. So I read it here, in publication order. This was a good move!

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Number 20: The Egg by Andy Weir, a short story freely available at https://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg.html

Nice little conceit. Takes about two minutes to read.

Feel it is a bit like where Dr Who is headed, if I'm honest.

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Numbers 17-19: The Wheel of Time Books 7-9 A Crown of Swords, The Path of Daggers and Winter's Heart, by Robert Jordan

Onwards, past the half-way mark now!

My main observation is that less than two years of in-world time elapses between the start of book 1 and the end of book 9.

So much happening, to so many people and you care about it all.

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