This was my first T Kingfisher book, and it won't be my last. It's horror with a real heart to it, populated by characters and in a setting I wouldn't mind spending more time with after the events of the story had passed. If such a thing as “cozy horror“ could be said to exist as a subgenre, this is an example, and I am here for it.

I finished this yesterday, and I still don't know how to start talking about this book. I had moments in Gardens of the Moon where I thought Malazan might be the series for me; this one cemented it. There are moments of horror and tragedy in this book that only hit harder for being rooted in our real-life history, as well as its fallout. It took me three and a half months to read this, and I don't regret one second of it. On to Memories of Ice.

I did not expect to like this anywhere near as much as I did, but if I've learned anything from the previous three entries, and now this one, it's that apparently Seanan considers tearing my heart out fair value for finishing a goddamn book.

I don't know how he did it, but Brandon Sanderson turned the characters he set up in Alloy of Law--easily my least favorite Sanderson book to date--into people I empathize with to the point that the last part of the book emotionally wrecked me, almost out of nowhere.

So screw you, Brandon Sanderson, for making me feel something. But also thank you for making your characters so gloriously, horribly human.

It's been a long time since I've been properly, jaw-dropping *horrified* by a novel. For all that Stephen King is known for less than stellar endings, this one he knocks out of the damn park; and while I can quibble that he slightly overdoes the full-circle callback stuff in the last third...screw it, this book earned it, with not another weak spot in sight. Emotionally and thematically resonant throughout, this is my favorite King novel by miles.

This is the roughest time I've had with a Sanderson novel so far. After the novelty of the characters, setting, and remixed magic system wore off, I hit a wall about halfway through. Ended up skimming a bunch of the climactic fight, possibly unwisely. But I couldn't bring myself to care. I am going to keep going eventually, because I'm still interested in the characters and setting. I dunno. I'm tired and I know there is better in this series.

I'm about a third of the way through, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. A great palate-cleanser between the first two Stormlight books. I love the characters and writing, and how the events of Hero of Ages directly affected this world. And the tabloid pages that end some chapters have genuinely made me laugh at times, while building the world even further. It's frankly pretty brilliant what's going on here.

“Authoritarian, paralyzing, circular, occasionally elliptical stock phrases, also jocularly referred to as nuggets of wisdom, are a malignant plague, one of the very worst ever to ravage the earth.“
- Jose Saramago

Yeah, just sum up and review the longest novel you've ever read in 450 characters, they said. It'll be easy, they said.

It's really freaking good, but I'm very glad I'd already read four other cosmere books and spent two months reading this one instead of trying to brute-force my way through. It's a read that rewards time.

I suspect there's something to be said about a book that hasn't lost any of its relevance for over 250 years. It's been probably 15-ish years since I first read Candide, and it's been my yardstick for every satirical novel I've read since. It has a time and a place, but it transcends both somehow, and you don't need to know the history around it to recognize the ideas it viciously assaults--though knowing the history makes it that much more fun.

I am absolutely reeling from the end of this book. I never thought I would like military fantasy quite so much as I've loved the Poppy War trilogy so far, but as the stakes keep rising for characters I've grown to...not exactly “love“ so much as know as if they were real people since book 1, this entry is setting the stage for something equal parts epic and horrible in the conclusion.

That said, shit, I need a breather. This one was exhausting.

This is my first time actually reading the text of Endgame, after seeing a stunning filmed version some years ago. It's as violently claustrophobic and funny as I remember. And I feel comforted by it this time. Endgame doesn't need some grand gesture or epiphany to send to its audience, it's content to just stare into the void and invite us to stare alongside it. Not behind it, though, that'd give it the shivers.

I don't know why I haven't properly dived into Beckett before. Oh well. I have the complete dramatic works now and I'm reading them. And I'm really enjoying it so far, after taking a moment to acclimate to theatre writing for the first time in I don't know how many years. Reminds me a lot of early 20th century French absurdism, which I suppose Beckett would have known well, wouldn't he?

The Alchemist seems just a toxic quasi-parable turned novel. Boy has dream, follows his heart to find his Personal Legend (I got really sick of that phrase), meets a bunch of new age motivational speeches in the desert, and finds the treasure was in the journey itself all along. The universe conspires to help people who *really* look for it, you see, and if you die unfulfilled, welp, sounds like a you problem.

This book is deceptively simple, and every time I read it, a different angle seems to be the “main point;“ this time, it was how simplifying language for convenience can lead so easily to reframing, propaganda, and gaslighting. One wonders what Orwell would have made of McCarthyism, let alone what both “sides“ of the current US corporate government machine get away with on a constant basis to this day scot-free.

This might be my favorite book I've read all year so far. There's a poetry and heart in this novel that is hard to find elsewhere, and it comes from a place of absolute naturalness. It's been over a decade since I read Steinbeck in school, and I think I'll have to read, really *read*, more of his work soon. This little book got to me.

I can see why people might not dig this one, but I was drawn in. I enjoyed the characters, the banter, the slow burn that congeals into a plot, the mysterious culty-ness. Any “horror“ in this book is a vibe, a window dressing for the events actually taking place and how the increasingly unreliable narrator and her friends deal with them, or don't. And I like that stuff.

If this first book is any indication, this looks to be my favorite mutant/superhero team series ever. The characters feel like real people, and their powers, like the people who wield them, are deeply flawed but somehow fit together by the end. Also--full disclosure of bias--as a non-binary asexual, seeing myself represented by some of these characters, dealing with some of my own personal issues growing up, is incredible. Excellent stuff.

This is a humbling and chilling book. I don't know how, but Mowat in the course of this slim volume managed to write an incredibly readable book about government incompetence and savagery, biology, and a single expedition that reveals how humanity has made itself alien from the planet we presume to call home. Many of the conclusions made in this book are going to stay with me for a long time.

Everything else aside, I will confirm that this *is* a book that keeps its promises.

This is everything a book about Jeff Goldblum could be: smart, quirky, well-researched but with wild flights of imaginative fancy when the author sees fit to illustrate a point. It's also a study of a celebrity who bafflingly seems to have stayed authentically himself in the public eye for decades, and made a middle-age transition into internet fame look easy.

This is a very solid follow-up to The Final Empire, expanding the setting and cast while still feeling lived-in, real, and familiar. I'll be looking forward to Hero of Ages, albeit with some trepidation because Sanderson has made it clear with this entry that nobody and nothing is necessarily safe, and even the things that seem well-established can be unreliable.

A great read, and if I wasn't fully invested in the Cosmere before, I sure am now.

Part 1: Started interesting, then quickly became exhausting and remained that way.

Part 2: Big twist out of nowhere, reminiscent of BBC Sherlock in that no indication is made beforehand in an effort to make the book look clever when it isn't. Shenanigans ensue.

Part 3: I honestly just waited for it to be over. I was listening to the audiobook, so at least the narration by Julia Whelan and Kirby Heyborne was consistently great.

An auspicious series starter, from an author who knows the world he's building and how to show it without spoon-feeding the readers too much exposition. The magic systems, the characters, the setting, lore, all of it--I want more. And luckily, there is more. So you'll have to excuse me for a bit while I track those down and dig in.