About to wear this costume. I'm supplying my own books.

I haven't been here in a while, but figure maybe I should try posting more of my reading again. I absolutely love this series based on the first Thieftaker book. Only one more full length book to read in this one.

#fantasy #historicalfantasy #urbanfantasy

Ice cream and some appropriate reading based on today's events.

A solid coming of age LGBTQ story set in a historical Vietnamese setting.

#fantasy

I liked the story in this one better than the last. Here we find Jack Boniface facing down his own internal demons that have long haunted him, even before becoming the most recent Shadowman.

#comics #superhero

I felt like this was the weakest of the Shadowman volumes I've read so far. It tell origins of the various Shadowmen that have come down through history, as well as the origin of his nemesis. Unfortunately, parts of it just felt blah to me.

#comics #superhero

Just finished this one. Such a great read, both as a literary gem and a post apocalyptic novel. Now on to watch the TV show.

#sciencefiction #scifi

The feeling you get when you finally find that elusive 1st edition hard cover of a book that completes your collection of a specific author.

#sciencefiction #scifi

My reading progress through 2021 and 2021 totals. These Storygraph stats are more accurate since they track pages separate from books count.

I finished book 3 just as the show started. I'll be trying to get through a few more in 2022.

#fantasy

Prior to the show starting on Amazon Prime I continued my journey with the books. I'm absolutely loving these. Dated on things at times, but I love the detail in it. I like big book series and I cannot lie...

#fantasy

This one wasn't the best I've read yet. It's another collection of short stories. I'm expecting better once I get into the core novels.

#fantasy

Solid book about the martial Ethic that infused German society during the early modern era. This is an absolute must read for context if you are studying historical European martial arts.

#history #HEMA

Squeaking it in just in time for year's end.

Over the next few days I'll be following this post up with all the ones read that I had not yet gotten to posting.

#ReadingChallenge

I got an advanced reader copy of this one. It tackles a huge concept: geoengineering. The technical details are good, but when it came to the actual characters I had a hard time getting attached to them.

I really enjoyed this quick novella with is very strange, Lovecraftian feel. It's a great read if you want a fast horror for the season.

#horror

Got a couple of fun things from my local game store for free roleplaying game day.

#roleplaying #games

Got this in the mail the other day and I've already finished it. Can't believe how good this series is. How long do I have to wait for volume 7?

#comics #fantasy

One of Frank Herbert's early novellas, this one based on what happens when human genetic/cybernetic alterations are pushed to the extreme. It's a bit dated at this point, but the concept is still good.

#sciencefiction #scifi

Finally got around to starting this series. I wanted to get the first book done before the TV show starts in November.

Wow. Seriously. Why did it take me this long to finally get around to this?

#fantasy

Good book. Lots of science. The only thing that didn't thrill me was that it was like reading the Martian, but for the moon. It would be nice to see him vary his stile a bit while keeping that great science in there.

#sciencefiction #scifi

This second book in the Mongoliad series is better than the first and really starts moving the story along.

#historicalfiction

My first introduction to Ian M. Banks Culture novels, this was a solid 4 ⭐ for me. There was one horrorish scene in the book that I thought was pointless to the story which is why it's not getting 5 stars. I'll be continuing to go through all the Culture novels over the next couple of years.

#scifi #sciencefiction

A satisfying conclusion to this trilogy. Can't wait to see how they handle the rest of the story in the Netflix show.

#fantasy

A short novella about Bobby Draper and her nephew. The story here did make it's way into the TV show as well, though with some significant changes. But, it's cool to see that they really worked with all the material available to them.

#scifi #sciencefiction

This was an awesome little novella mixing together western and eastern fairy tails.

#fantasy

The 2nd book in the Shadow &Bone series, I found this one to be a bit better than the first book. Seemed to move a bit faster as well.

#fantasy

This is the last book in this short story series I read. This one was really good. While not every story in the Forward series was a 5 star book, it's well worth reading them

#scifi #sciencefiction

What a fantastic exploration of so much research that has been done trying to prove the infamous male and female brain. As expected, it's still a bunch of wishful patriarchal thinking when it all comes down to it. It's a slow read with a lot of details, but I highly recommend it.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

#science #gender #feminism

This had to be the most disappointing book of this short story series. I just could not get into this one; it lost me very early on.

#scifi #sciencefiction

A good read about some of the various scientific explorations and level of knowledge during the middle ages. Despite being called the dark ages there was a surprisingly good amount of science done, though not quite with the same level of methodology introduced during the enlightenment period. Good context read for some of my other medieval studies.

#history #science

This short story was a bit underwhelming next to the full novels by Andy Weir. It was an already much used trope involving quantum computing.

#scifi #sciencefiction

Just recently picked up this new 5th edition conversion of one of my absolute favorite classic D&D adventure modules.

#roleplaying #dungeonsanddragons #dnd

Recently read this one prior to watching the show. I found it enjoyable, but it pales next to some of the more recent books in this universe.

#fantasy

Another great novella from Nnedi Okorafor! Can't wait for her next book.

#scifi #sciencefiction

Wow, this book absolutely sucked me in. There were a few parts of the plot that could have been improved, and some of the names for things made me think he forgot this was an adult level novel instead of his previous young adult. But overall, really good.

I really enjoyed the recent interview he did with the scientist who helped with the FTL concept. Absolutely fascinating.

#scifi #sciencefiction

Codex Amberger is a collection of long missing illustrated plates from a medieval fight book. There are only a handful of illustrations in the found book, but they appear to lineup with other illustrations from the time period where we get treatise collected together by Paulus Hector Mair. By itself it's not much information, but as part of my growing fight book collection it adds to the overall history.

#history #HEMA #fencing #swordsmanship

I've been away from litsy for a while, but I'm back now. I have a bunch of read books to post, but I'll start with this one I just finished while sitting by the fire. This book in the Amazon forward collection is an AI story that is down right terrifying in the end. This one definitely rates a 5 ⭐ review. Highly recommend it.

#scifi #sciencefiction

Enter here for a chance to win this stack of books in Orbit Loot's monthly contest:

https://swee.ps/quJVR_cwehszd

New Burgundian Poleaxe book and practice polearm delivered today! Can't wait to start digging into this!

#HEMA #polearm #poleaxe #history #medieval

First book finished in the new year: another psychedelic whirlwind of a Jerry Cornelius adventure. Two more main books to go in this tetralogy, and then several other compiled stories. I'll be working through more of them later this year.

My final counts on the 2020 year in books.

"The time might be July 31st 1970."

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

Blood of Empire, by Brian McClellan

#fridayfunwith451 @451Degrees

The last book of 2020 was the Final Programme, by Michael Moorcock. The first book in 2021 will be A Cure for Cancer, by Michael Moorcock, the second book of the Jerry Cornelius series.

#lastfirst @BookNAround

Another one I read last month and forgot to post here. This is the second of this short story series I've read and I'll be finishing the last three this year. This one is a disturbing combination of scifi and horror and the consent to be cloned.

#scifi #sciencefiction

A quick short story about the development of the Fred Johnson character in the Expanse novels. I read this last month but forgot to post it here. I'm going to try and catch up more on the Expanse novels and novellas this coming year.

#scifi #sciencefiction

Wow. This is a book that feels like I should be reading it while taking a hit of acid. It's fast paced and a pretty wild ride. I also noted a couple references and scenes that tie this into the multiverse of the Elric Saga I read prior to this. Very different books and stories, but there are subtle connections if you're paying attention.

And got it done right close to the end. Goodreads 2020 Reading Challenge complete!

Over the time of the COVID pandemic I've been collecting all the Michael Moorcock books. This is the second one I've dived into. Elric is the antihero most other scifi/fantasy antiheroes are based on. A servant of Chaos, but destined to keep the balance between Law and Chaos. This is only the beginning of my journey into the Moorcock multiverse.