Inspired by my friend Jen , here is the media I’ve been consuming. Audble continues to be fantastic and I’m burning through 20+ books a year. Fair warning if you don’t know me - but if you’re the kind of person who uses “woke” or “social justice warrior” in an un-ironic or derogatory manner then you’re probably not going to like pretty much anything I’m reading.

• Unconventional Christmas Movies
• 2022 reading list
• 2023 reading list

2024 Media List

In usual fashion I slapped the 2023 reading list together last minute just in time for 2024. I’ll try to do better this year (lol). In other news WHEN THE FUCK DID IT BECOME 2024. This is not okay.

Brute Force

Scott Meyer

This was a pretty entertaining stand alone book by Scott Meyer and the first one outside the Magic 2.0 ¹ universe. A peaceful alliance of aliens has a problem - they’ve been overtaken by a violent species and need help from humans. Humans aren’t doing so well, as they’ve managed to bomb themselves into near oblivion (which they refer to as “the bad week”), but they are the most violent species that they know, so they figure we can help them fix their civilization. Our hero Cross Agarwal leads a band of post-apocalyptic raiders who less than a week ago were trying to kill each other to save the aliens from this other species. In standard Scott Meyer form we get some great characters such as the cannibal Meat Machine and The Pile - sentient, quantum entangled sand that is aware of everything that happens anywhere one of it’s piles happens to be. I liked this book quite a bit and am very much looking forward to Meyer’s new books. You can find Brute Force here

Camp Damascus

Chuck Tingle

I loved my first Chuck Tingle book and this one again did not disappoint. Rose is a very devout girl living in Neverton, Montana - a God-fearing community with the best gay conversion camp in the world (100% success rate!). Not everything is as it seems, and we follow Rose as she begins to question the motivations of her family and church before discovering the horrific truth about it all. There were some sections where I feel like the book dragged, but given this is Chuck’s first book he sure as shit did better than I could have. I’m very much looking forward to his next book . You can find Camp Damascus here

A Desolation Call Peace

Arkady Martine

Once again we join Mahit Dzmare and Three Seagrass as they attempt to communicate with strange alines that seem bend on destroying everything they come across. If they succeed they could save the Teixcalaan Empire from destruction and allow it’s continued expansion. If they fail it could mean an endless war. The story jumps between Mahit and Three Seagrass, Yaotlek Nine Hibiscus - a fleet captain who has been charged with preventing this newly discovered species from interrupting the empire and her right hand Twenty Cicada, and Eight Antidote - the soon-to-be Emperor who is learning about how the empire functions and who he will eventually become as Emperor of Teixcalaan.

I liked this book quite a bit. I’m a bit sad that this will be the last of the duology, but I’m looking forward to more Teixcalaan books! You can find A Desolation Called Peace here

The Colour of Magic

Terry Pratchett

I’m a little late to the Discworld series , but I’m glad I finally got around to reading one of his books. I love a little bit of comedy mixed in with my fantasy and The Colour of Magic certainly doesn’t disappoint. The book is set in another universe where the world is a disc sitting atop four giant elephants, who in turn are on the back of a giant spacefaring turtle. We follow the story of Rincewind, an incompetent (and yet very hard to kill) flunky wizard, as he attempts to guide the continent’s first tourist. The duo, accompanied by Twoflower’s luggage which is made of magical sentient wood that will follow Twoflower anywhere he goes, proceed to get themselves into all the trouble there is to get into. They explore magical caverns and enchanted trees, an upside down mountain filled with magic, and eventually making it to the edge of the world.

The Colour of Magic did a lot of world building which I found a little slow at the beginning, but by the end I found the characters and story to be quite enjoyable. Perhaps not as much as some of the other series I’ve been reading, but on the other hand the Discworld has 41 novels to explore, so there is hope that it will get much, much better. I can’t wait! You can find The Colour of Magic here

A Country of Ghosts

Margaret Killjoy

This one was recommended by Elle and it read pretty much as I would have expected from them lol. A Country of Ghosts follows a Borolian journalist who travels to a far away land as a war correspondent and gets involved with the local anarchists as they attempt to push back the invading Borolian forces. The book is basically half novel, half anarchism 101.

You can find A Country of Ghosts here

The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger

Stephen King

This one goes along with Pratchett’s Discworld in that I really wanted a series that I knew would be good and would last me a while. Stephen King doesn’t disappoint and this was quite the listen. The book (and I’m assuming series, although I’m not through it yet) follows Roland Deschain, the last gunslinger, searching for a mysterious man in black. We soon discover that Roland doesn’t live in our universe, but there does seem to be some connection — Jake, a young boy that Rolland discovers in a way station, died in our world (under dubious circumstances) and was transported to Roland’s world. They travel through the wasteland fighting demons and succubi, search for oracles and the man in black, all while trying to find the mysterious dark tower. Roland eventually catches the man in black, who tells him about “the three” - thee people he will encounter on his way to the Dark Tower. The Prisoner, The Lady of Shadows, and The Pusher.
The book ends with Roland defeating the man in black, but at a great cost.

You can find The Gunslinger here

The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three

Stephen King

The first book was so good and ended on a “where the hell is he going from here?” note that I had to immediately dive into the second novel. This one got super weird but also very fun. Not long after the previous novel Roland wakes up on a beach being attacked by some large, nasty crustaceans. The attack leaves him injured and weakened, but he soldiers on to find the three and eventually finds a door that appears to go to nowhere. However, when opened Roland realizes that he can see through someone else’s eyes. When he goes through the door he inhabits the body of Eddie Dean, a young heroin addict in 1987 in the process of smuggling drugs into New York for a mob boss. Of course everything goes sideways and Roland helps Eddie get out of the situation and eventually escape to Roland’s world.

Eventually Roland and Eddie find the next door where we meet Odetta Holmes, a black woman with dissociative identity disorder . Odetta lost her legs when someone pushed her in front of a subway train years ago. She is completely unaware of her alternate personality - Detta Walker - who is as violent and nasty as Odetta is kind and gentle. Odetta gets pulled into Roland’s world as well and proceeds to wreak havoc on Roland and Eddie. Roland is becoming increasingly more sick from his injuries on the beach. Eddie goes ahead with Odetta to find the last door, and when he finds it he leaves Odetta there and brings back her wheelchair to bring Roland to the final door.

Given the pattern, we’re sort of expecting a final companion, but what we get is Jack Mort - a sociopath who takes pleasure in injuring and killing strangers. We soon realize that Mort’s story is interwoven with the others. Randall takes over Jack’s body to procure some wares that are needed (such as medicine for his infection). Through the process Odetta and Detta are forced to confront the trauma that caused the split and they merge into a third, personality - Susannah Dean.

The group leave the beach in search of the tower. At the end both Eddie and Susannah have been saved by Roland, who is aware that he very likely may have to sacrifice them at some point to reach the Tower.

You can find The Drawing of the Three here

The Light Fantastic

Terry Pratchett

Back to Discworld! We pick up shortly after the ending of The Colour of Magic as Rincewind and Twoflower are rescued by the Octavo from falling over the edge of the world. The actions of the Octavo cause quite a disturbance, which leads some wizards to summon Death to try to get an explanation of what happened. Death explains that the Discworld will soon be destroyed by a red star unless the eight spells of the Octavo are read.

Rincewind and Twoflower go on a bunch of bumbling adventures, meeting Druids who are building a computer and Death’s adopted daughter who wants to keep her new friends (by killing them of course!). They meet up with one of the greatest warriors in the land, who is old and toothless but incredibly fierce. As the world gets closer to the red star people star getting a little crazy and attacking anyone associated with magic. Eventually the 8 spells are all said and this causes eight moons of the red star to crack open, giving birth to eight infant worlds (turtles). The Luggage is given to Rincewind as a gift (after eating the Octavo) and Twoflower decides that it is time to return home. He gives the Luggage to Rincewind as a parting gift and Rincewind decides to enroll in University, supposing now that the spell is out of his mind he may finally be able to learn magic.

You can find The Light Fantastic here

The Saint of Bright Doors

Vajra Chandrasekera

I had read quite a few of the 2024 Hugo nominees for Best Novel so I decided to read the rest. This was the first of the 3 I hadn’t already read. I was quite imaginative and enjoyable. Fetter is raised from a young age by his mother to kill his father. Except he doesn’t really want to, so he moves to the city and tries to live his life. He joins a support group for other cult members that were almost the ones to take over, but not quite. The setting is very unusual in that it combines mystic and magical themes in a modern setting. The book feels like it’s wandering at times, but somehow is always moving along, even if we don’t know where it’s going. The story is incredibly original a quite fun to read, I liked it quite a bit.

You can find The Saint of Bright Doors here

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi

Shannon Chakraborty

This is the second of the Hugo nominees that I hadn’t read, and I’m quite glad I did! This was a delightful tale of Amina al-Sirafi, a pirate on the Indian Ocean who is tracked down in her retirement by a wealthy widow who want’s her help in getting her kidnapped granddaughter back from a very bad man. As we go along we realize no everything is as it was presented and taking the job has put Amina in a very bad place. She reunites with her old crew and they discover that the very bad man is a very bad sorcerer who controls tremendous magic, much to Amina’s chagrin because she really, really is not fond of magic. As the book progresses she finds it harder and harder to complete her task while keeping everyone safe. This was a fantastically fun read and I very much hope that there are more to come!

You can find The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi here

Witch King

Martha Wells

If you’ve read the reviews up until now you’re well aware that I am obsessed with Wells’ series The Murderbot Diaries . Wells was a very accomplished author in the fantasy space before All Systems Red came out, but I wasn’t sure what to expect from this. Some of the reviews I read said that it was hard to follow. The scope of Witch King is certainly much, much more expansive than any given Murderbot book, but I didn’t find it overly hard to follow.

The story is set in a magical world of witches, magicians (called expositors), demons, mortal and immortal beings. The demons are beings who dwell in the underearth, but can be summoned to posses the bodies of the recently deceased. Among the nomadic tribes who practice this the demons become part of the deceased’s extended family. They have magical powers and children born out of the unions between demons and mortals become witches, who also posses magical powers, usually in the ability to control certain elemental forces.

The story follows Kai-Enna (Kai), a demon who lives among the nomadic plain tribes and inhabits the body of a young girl who’s family wished to know what her final thoughts were, since when a demon inhabits the recently deceased they take on their knowledge. The story jumps between the present and the past as Kai retraces the path that lead him from a peaceful nomadic life to overthrowing the Hierarchs, the big bad(dies) who aim to overthrow the world, and the present where he seeks to maintain the peaceful coalition he helped to build.

The story is a fairly straight forward good vs evil deal, which I found quite entertaining. Many reviewers point out that it has a decidedly 90s sci-fi feel , although I can’t claim to have read enough sci-fi (yet) to agree or disagree with that. Lovers of Murderbot will find a lot to like in Kai, who is the introvirtuous hero who reluctantly steps up to save the day, even if he’d rather just stay at home and chill. It didn’t take long at all for me to get completely immersed in Witch King and I was definitely sad when it was finished.

You can find Witch King here