I'm #CurrentlyReading _The Color of Magic_ by Terry Pratchett.
I've actually not read any Discworld at all, and got the Humble Bundle, and thought it'd be best to read the first written first, so I would appreciate the improvement in writing craft that comes after an author finds their stride.
That said, running into an equivalent to Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser less than a dozen pages in has already given me pause...
"A master of laugh-out-loud fiction . . . Pratchett has created an alternate universe full of trolls, dwarfs, wizards, and other fantasy elements, and he uses that universe to reflect our own culture with entertaining and gloriously funny results. . . . Nothing short of magical." --Chicago Tribune In this first novel in the internationally bestselling comedic fantasy Discworld series from legendary New York Times bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett (and the first in the Wizards collection), the fate of the Discworld depends on the survival of a naïve--and first-ever--sightseer. A writer of brilliant imagination favorably compared to Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, and Douglas Adams, Sir Terry Pratchett created a complex, satirical universe with its own set of cultures and rules, populated with wizards, witches, academics, fairies, policemen, and other creatures both fantastical and remarkably ordinary (including Death himself). Welcome to the Discworld . . . a parallel time and place that sounds very much like our own, but looks completely different--because it's a flat world sitting on the backs of four elephants who hurtle through space balanced on a giant turtle. In this classic fantasy parody, the maiden voyage through Terry Pratchett's ingeniously twisted alternate dimension, the well-meaning but spectacularly inept wizard Rincewind encounters something previously unknown in the Discworld: a tourist! Twoflower has arrived to take in the sights. Unfortunately, he's cast his lot with a most inappropriate tour guide--a decision that could result in his becoming not only Discworld's first visitor . . . but quite possibly, its last. And, of course, he's brought his sentient Luggage along, a companion with feet--and a mind--of its own. And teeth. . . . The Discworld novels can be read in any order, but the Wizards collection includes: The Color of Magic The Light Fantastic Sourcery Eric Interesting Times The Last Continent Unseen Academicals
Book 15 is "A Close and Common Orbit" by Becky Chambers, the second Wayfarers book.
#CurrentlyReading #Bookstodon #BookSky #BeckyChambers #Wayfarers #ACloseAndCommonOrbit
22 books into the year, and the science shelf seems to have been a bit neglected, so I think that it’s about time that I put that right
#Goodreads #ReadingChallenge #CurrentlyReading #Bibliophile #Booklovers #Bookworm #WhiteHoles #CarloRovelli #Astrophysics
Book 14 is "Summer Knight" by Jim Butcher, the fourth Dresden Files book.
Edit: finished 16th March.
#CurrentlyReading #Bookstodon #BookSky #JimButcher #DresdenFiles #SummerKnight
Marieke Nijkamp Novels
Even If We Break
The locked room book. I've been reading a lot of stories with the theme of a former D&D group getting together for one last game so reading a horror version of that was a no-brainer. This is a pretty standard locked-room mystery (locked cabin) and because of that I knew who the killer was pretty soon into the book. What made the book enjoyable even with that knowledge was the personal points of view of the characters, and how deeply thoughtful and emotional they were. This is Marieke Nijkamp's big gifts: Her understanding of trauma that allows her to go deeply into the thoughts and emotions of her characters. That made the book truly eerie and terrifying.
After We Burned
The fire book. This is the novel that was not what I thought it would be. I thought were were finding out what happened to a missing girl, but then there's a fire, and then there's something bigger and even worse. I enjoyed this because of the layers of secrets involved in the mystery reveals that so perfectly mirrored the layers of secrets involved in what happened and what was done. Once again Nijkamp's gift of pov writing played a huge part in my enjoyment of this book. We all know we lie to ourselves more than to anyone else, and that's fun for me to read.
At the End of Everything
The plague book. Literally, there is a plague, and kids in a facility are abandoned to handle it by themselves. I am immunosuppressed and I now have long-covid, so this book spoke to me. I was beyond delighted to watch these kids turn not to violence as in so many books and shows, but turn to compassion. It filled me with hope. As usual, there are multiple povs and reading the thoughts of these kids about a literal plague and seeing how different they are from the adults who abandoned them is sad and also wonderful. I highly recommend this book.
This Is Where It Ends
The school-shooting book. It is heartbreaking. Through pov chapters and social media, it tells the stories of teenagers during the first day of school, when most of them are in the auditorium for an orientation, some are at cross country practice, some are home, and some are up to mischief, and one has decided to come to school and kill people. Marieke Nijkamp never shies away from the bad and the ugly so we find ourselves in the heads of the shooter's abused sister and beloved girlfriend, for example, both of whom knew a very different person until this day. I reiterate, this is a heartbreaking book. You're going to love these kids you meet and grieve when some die, and you're only going to know them for the worst hour of their lives. I recommend it but be very careful with yourself.
#Bookstodon #MariekeNijkamp #CurrentlyReading #2026Reading #EvenIfWeBreak #AfterWeBurned #AtTheEndOfEverything #ThisIsWhereItEnds
So I finished the above book a while ago, and was going to post earlier this week "I'm #CurrentlyReading _Revenant Gun_ by Yoon-ha Lee, which I thought I'd already read but oops no" however instead I just read it and it was an excellent work.
https://books.google.pt/books?id=j5ClswEACAAJ&hl=en-US&source=gbs_book_other_versions
The stunning conclusion to the mind-bending seriesShuos Jedao is awake... ...and nothing is as he remembers. He's a teenager, a cadet-a nobody-in the body of an old man; a general in command of an elite force. And he's the most feared, and reviled, man in the galaxy. Jedao carries orders from Hexarch Nirai Kujen to re-conquer the fractured pieces of the hexarchate. But he has no memory of ever being a soldier, let alone a general, and the Kel soldiers under his command hate him for a massacre he can't remember committing. Kujen's friendliness can't hide the fact that he's a tyrant. And what's worse, Jedao and Kujen are being hunted-by an enemy who knows more about Jedao than he does himself...
#currentlyreading On the Calculation of Volume Book 1 (https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/527858bf-900d-45f4-b3eb-c158b7602411) - Another Groundhog Day clone. November 18 has happened 122 times and our protag is gonna journal all about it. Apparently I dig this mode of storytelling more than I'd like to admit. I'm still early in the book, but I enjoy the more literary style. It is slow. It is pondering. We'll see.
It's also 7 books long, so that's kind of a lot based on what I've read so far.
#CurrentlyReading (or re-reading) Mary Beard's "SPQR". The author has such talent to bring historic events to life, it's most delightful.
So I have finished my 21st book of the year, and this will become my next read. Something serious, in fact, it’s something deadly serious, so my usual book related hashtags will play second fiddle to the specifics of this particular book
#FreePalestine #StopTheWar #Genocide #SaveGaza #GazaTheStoryOfAGenocide #CurrentlyReading #Goodreads #ReadingChallenge #Bibliophile #Booklovers #Bookworm
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