Recently Read Books

Haven't read any Gemmell for years either. 

First one of these was excellent but the 'sequel' while a solid enough book in its own right was something of a letdown - the Hawk Queen barely features in it and it doesn't tell the story that one presumes is to come after the end of the first book, instead suddenly turns into a multiverse and time travel story (years before it was 'the thing') where not enough is really revealed to the reader about the bigger picture to be satisfying. There's a review on Goodreads which says something like it feels like there's two missing books between them: my thoughts exactly!

I already added a couple of challenges to it. I'll will probably adapt some of my List Challenges over time if there aren't similar challenges already on this platform. So far I've put up:

This was a decent trilogy, quite humorously written considering it's about an order of religious knights. 

What spoiled this for me was that while reading the middle book I was looking up David Eddings, an author I'd read other series of many years ago, and discovered that after his death his past as a child abuser was unearthed. It was difficult to read these in the same light after that. I still rather want to find out what happens in the sequel trilogy but feel conflicted about reading them at all.

Finished both these series by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir. Very good both, overall preferred the Freya and Huldar series. 

Tending to read two Connelly's back to back since there's so many. Have previously seen the film of Blood Work but it didn't spoil too much due to completely changing the identity of the killer in a move that honestly feels like character assassination having now read the book. Film is okay on its own, shit as an adaptation. Oddly enough Connelly acknowledges its existence in Angels Flight. 

I've read better crime books but this one is set fairly local to me, near where my Aunt lives (she recommended it to me) so I actually know the area quite well: we actually had lunch in the pub the cops in this frequent a couple of weeks ago. 

Been a while since I read one of these because they're proving hard to find. I ended up getting this one out of the library. Not the best in the series it must be said: it reads like an interquel book between story arcs since the next three sound like they form a trilogy on their own while the previous book tied up various storylines. 

And now I'm reading the first of a ten book fantasy saga:

I shan't read them all back to back, not least because I've got the new Brandon Sanderson coming which I'll be reading just as soon as I finish this one, but otherwise I expect I'll do the remainder two or even three at a time and break it up with other authors. While I tend to like to read fantasy in succession I remind myself that anyone who read a series like this as they came out had to spread it across years. I'm aiming to have read all ten by the end of 2025 although in that time I also wish to read more Malazan novels, having recently picked them up again and at least start The Wheel of Time and The Wars of Light and Shadow. I may read one off fantasy and science fiction and maybe some trilogies between volumes of the bigger series but mostly I'll break these bigger books up with more thrillers. I expect I'll be setting a more modest reading target for 2025 though. I went for 60 this year after making 92 on a 50 target for 2023. I've read 76 books in 2024 so far. The new Sanderson is massive (1300+ pages) so although I'm expecting to get through it and Empire in Black and Gold before the end of the year I expect this year's total books read will be 78. Maybe 79 if I can get a short one in after Wind and Truth. I might settle for most 30-40 target for next year though. 

Not a huge crossover either way - I got 1.