Not Much of Anything, Alas

[lydamorehouse]

 The library finally coughed up KD Edward's Tarot Sequence triology (Last Sun, The Hanged Man, and the Hourglass Throne.) I picked these up because Edwards is going to be one of our GoH's at Gaylaxicon. Have I read much of Last Sun yet? No, not really. I'm finding it a little difficult to get into. I'm hoping that will change? I'm giving this book a bit longer than I would normally because I want to give a GoH more than a fair shake, you know? Someone on ConCom loves his work! So, I guess we'll see if I ever warm to it.

Obviously, it's okay if I don't. But, I'm generally bummed that it's not dragged me in because I'm having some reading ennui. Do you ever get this? I have a ton of options of things to read, but nothing is looking appealing and nothing that I'm currently reading is grabbing me. I've also got Waubgeshig Rice's Moon of the Crusted Snow on audiobook and I can't seem to get past 10%.   And I've heard good things about this book!

So, here's the other stuff I have in my Libby folder right now. Help me pick something?

When the English Fall by David Williams
The Future is Yours by Dan Frey
Meet Me in Another Life by Catriona Silvey
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
Arch-Conspirator by Veronica Roth
The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon
Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo

Anything look good to you? I noticed that Martha Wells recommended  the worldbuilding in The Archive Undying to the New York Times in their "Let Us Help You Pick Your Next Book: Science Fiction" article. So maybe that's worth a go?

What are you reading?

Comments

[profiterole_reads]

I read the first book and it didn't work for me. I remember that someone at the start had "sagging breasts"...

I've heard a lot of great things about The Archive Undying.

I'm reading Duck Prints Press's Pride Bundle 2025: General Imprint Short Stories. 👍

[rachelmanija]

I really liked How High We Go in the Dark but it's very literary and maybe not that grabby.

[spiffikins]

I read a couple of reviews on The Archive Undying and more than one person compared it to Tamsym Muir's books - which, while I found the worldbuilding very interesting, I found the books themselves to be extremely frustrating to read, LOL

I know what you mean about reading ennui - I bounced off a handful of books by authors I was trying - and ended up re-reading Pat Brigg's Alpha & Omega series - I'm on book 3 and very happy!

[offcntr]

Just finished a *new* Peter S. Beagle, I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons, and Mur Lafferty's latest Midsolar Murders entry. Currently starting Malka Olders' The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses.

Alternating with comfort reread of Bujold's Penric novellas.

[offcntr]

Hard agree on the Muir. I struggled through the first book, gave up on the second about three chapters in when I lost my patience with waiting for them to explain the character resets.

[carbonel]

I haven't read or seen reviews of anything on your list, but The Archive Undying is an intriguing title.

I just finished reading Sherwood Smith's book Tribute for a between-the-lines book that will meet (virtually) on Sunday. It was great, and there are three more books in the same series for me to look forward to. It also dovetailed beautifully with a book I read recently about structure in Asian works (Spring, Summer, Asteroid, Bird), so that was cool.

Now I'm reading Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel for the regular book club. It's nowhere near as immersive as the previous one, at least so far, even though I'm fairly familiar with the historical period covered in it. It's also rather creepy reading a book that reads like a novel (fictionalized history) where I know perfectly well what happens to the main character in actual history and I assume that will not change.

me, I am a delicate fucking reading flower

[bibliofile]

In all these things, it's me not the books.

Reading the description of Last Sun, I'd probably have to skip it myself: too many aristocrats, and an aristocratic society. Alas.

Of the other books, I've only tried one: Feed them silence, by Lee Mandelo. I wanted to like it, but I decided not to read through a crumbling marriage (among other things).