I love reading! Below are books I've read, with thoughts where I deem it appropriate. **Spoilers are likely.** ### 2026 ##### Redshirts Wow! An excellent Scalzi novel. I think starting with the __Emperox__ series (which I really enjoyed, but felt a little more soap opera than space opera) made me underrate Scalzi for some reason (and the __Old Man's War__ series somehow didn't already correct). This was tight, compelling. It's a fun trick he pulled here throughout. The referential treatment of various science fiction plotlines was great, and his ability to tie it all with a comedic bow was lovely. The end was thought provoking, and broke the fourth wall in a fun (if not entirely unpredictable) way. Really enjoyed this one. ##### Steve Jobs in Exile An interesting read through the NeXT era of Steve Jobs. I think what struck me the most is how compressed the 1990s and 2000s really are. (Duh -- this is coming from someone who was a small child during the second half of of the '90s and early 2000s) Regardless -- this story did give some greater context into how much of a failure NeXT really was in many ways, how great the software was in many ways, and how close to Pixar Jobs really was. ##### The Faith of Beasts James S.A. Corey just doing their thing -- great, page-turning science fiction. Eagerly awaiting the next book. Not quite as stark or brutal, but quietly creepier and more unsettling than the first. ##### The Monster Baru Cormorant Couldn't finish it. Not necessarily a bad book, but just feels caught in its own shoe laces. ##### The Traitor Baru Cormorant An interesting book and a strong first book. See above for the sequel. After reading and dropping the sequel, I see some of what I ultimately walked away from here -- but just nowhere near as much in quantity. ##### The Great Train Robbery Crichton wrote really well. This wasn't as good, but still enjoyable. Finished it in like 7 days. ##### Airframe Crichton wrote really well. Page turner. Finished it in like 4 days. ##### Jurassic Park Crichton wrote really well. Page turner. Finished it in like 2 days. ##### Shroud An excellent stand-alone Tchaikovsky novel. Creepy, definitely dives into the biology that he loves, but without letting it drag the story down. I enjoyed his *Final Architecture* series more, but liked this more than __Service Model__ or his __Children of Time__ series. ##### Kindle -> Kobo 2026 saw a major change in how I read. I've been a Kindle user for a decade. I loved my Kindle Oasis (thanks Anna for one of the best gifts I've ever received). The convenience helped me get back to reading. However, Amazon has walked away from premium hardware. The Oasis' battery life was never great. Micro-USB charging. Slow (compared to modern e-ink) refresh times. I waited for Amazon to come back to the form factor, but it's clear they have no interest. I've watched the e-reader market for 2 years or so, and I jumped for a Kobo Libra Colour. I was very skeptical of the color screen and "screendoor" effect. However, I'm a convert. I love this device. The battery life is excellent, USB-C charging lets me ditch a cable, the device is lightning fast compared to the Kindle, and the screen is actually better than the Oasis to my eyes. It feels more like reading on a textured, dimpled paper -- very subtle when reading, and not something you notice at all until you look for it. It takes me back decades to reading *Hardy Boys* books in the dark, for some reason. I just wish that the page turn buttons (Yes! There's actual buttons!) felt slightly better to click. But that's it -- otherwise, excellent device, the store is great, and I enjoy the Instapaper and Google Drive integration. ### 2025 ##### [Raven Stratagem](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL19154576W/Raven_Stratagem_(Machineries_of_Empire)?edition=key%3A/books/OL26773107M) ##### [Ninefox Gambit](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL20033218W/Ninefox_gambit?edition=ninefoxgambit0000leey) This, and the next two books in this series, seem like siblings to Ann Leckie's *Ancillary* series. However, I ultimately enjoyed Yoon Ha Lee's series slightly more. I find the character(s) of Jedao to be such a wonderful combination of eerie, ominous, and heartfelt. This grows throughout the series. ##### Too Like The Lightning *Unfinished... the pace and jumps between modern and Elizabethan English ultimately put me off* ##### The Human Division ##### The End of All Things ##### [The Last Colony](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL5734646W/The_Last_Colony?edition=key:/books/OL10936478M) ##### [The Ghost Brigades](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL5734645W/The_Ghost_Brigades?edition=key:/books/OL17855261M) ##### [Old Man's War](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL5734647W/Old_Man’s_War?edition=key%3A/books/OL14795055M) ##### [Apple in China](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL42444717W/Apple_in_China?edition=key:/books/OL57594946M) ##### [Eversion](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL27139150W/Eversion?edition=key%3A/books/OL39564067M) An interesting book that had me watching animations of eversion and being lost, the parts of the book that dive into various historic periods carried a fun sense of mystery and camaraderie. Once the mystery reveals itself, the book ends with a creepy, but satisfying, conclusion. For once -- I didn't mind that we don't find out about the humans. The ending feels correct. My biggest complaint -- in line with the author's mathematician background, it leans a little too hard on its eversion "gimmick". ##### [Service Model](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL37576633W/Service_Model?edition=key:/books/OL59424202M) ##### [Lonesome Dove](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL134601W/Lonesome_Dove?edition=key:/books/OL7660473M) ##### [A Drop of Corruption](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL42983060W/A_Drop_of_Corruption?edition=key%3A/books/OL58559296M) ##### [The Tainted Cup](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL37628730W/The_Tainted_Cup?edition=key%3A/books/OL50732795M) ##### [Ancillary Mercy](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL17358701W/Ancillary_Mercy?edition=key%3A/books/OL27194297M) ##### [Ancillary Sword](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL17062642W/Ancillary_Sword?edition=key%3A/books/OL25631967M) ##### [Ancillary Justice](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL17062644W/Ancillary_Justice?edition=key%3A/books/OL25631969M) Ann Leckie's world-building in this novel is superb. The genderless vocabulary takes a few pages to adjust to, but flows nicely by 1/3rd into the book. The storyline is intriguing, and the winding of backstories with present is well done. ##### [Last Emperox](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL20732627W/The_last_Emperox?edition=key%3A/books/OL30192606M) This book, and the previous two in this series, are page-turners. It's relatively predictable, but the characters are compelling, and the writing wraps you into their personalities. The love story is touching, if predictable. The ending was, to me, unsatisfying -- I spent multiple days after being unhappy with it, and still (months later) don't particularly love how it ended. It doesn't ruin the rest of the series, but did leave a poor taste in an otherwise fun series. ##### [The Consuming Fire](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL19754718W/The_consuming_fire?edition=key%3A/books/OL28700396M) ##### [The Collapsing Empire](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL19332006W/The_Collapsing_Empire_(The_Interdependency)?edition=key%3A/books/OL27228423M) ##### [Lords of Uncreation (The Final Architecture Book 3)](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL35711390W/Lords_of_Uncreation?edition=key%3A/books/OL50636181M) Easily my favorite set of Tchaikovsky books, I enjoyed this much more than the *Children of Time* series. The space opera world is a delight to swim in, and it brings together tropes from various series into a compelling storyline, with memorable characters. This last book pays off the previous two very nicely -- a hard feat to achieve. ##### [Eyes of the Void (The Final Architecture Book 2)](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL26518910W/Eyes_of_the_Void?edition=key:/books/OL37490608M) ##### [Shards of Earth (The FInal Architecture Book 1)](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL24481122W/Shards_of_Earth?edition=key%3A/books/OL37485654M) ##### [The Mercy of Gods](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL36898401W/The_Mercy_of_Gods?edition=key:/books/OL49835371M) ### 2024 ##### The Wood at Midwinter ##### Children of Ruin ##### Children of Time ##### The Firm ##### Pachinko ##### A Desolation Called Peace ##### A Memory Called Empire ##### Rainbows End ##### A Deepness in the Sky ##### A Fire Upon the Deep This book, and the book above it, combine to make one of the most interesting "series" I've ever read. I would recommend reading this one first, and then *A Deepness in the Sky*. Unlike most series, you can read these in either order, but I think this order makes for one of the most intriguing -- and tragic -- realizations I've ever had while reading. These two books continue to be something I think back on years later. ### 2023 ##### The Forever War ##### Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage ##### Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell ##### Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations ##### The Three Body Problem ##### Rise of Endymion (Hyperion Cantos, Book 4) ### 2022 ##### Endymion (Hyperion Cantos, Book 3) ##### The Fall of Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, Book 2) ##### Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, Book 1) ##### Memory's Legion ##### Leviathan Falls (The Expanse Book 9) ##### Tiamat's Wrath (The Expanse Book 8) ##### Persepolis Rising (The Expanse Book 7) ##### Babylon's Ashes (The Expanse Book 6) ##### Nemesis Games (The Expanse Book 5) ##### Cibola Burn (The Expanse Book 4) ##### Abaddon's Gate (The Expanse Book 3) ##### Caliban's War (The Expanse Book 2) ##### Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse Book 1) ##### Piranesi ### 2021 ##### How to Build a Car: The Autobiography of the World's Greatest Formula 1 Designer ##### The Rise and Fall of Osama Bin Laden ##### A Scanner Darkly ##### Project Hail Mary ##### Carrying the Fire ### 2020 ##### Chapterhouse: Dune ##### Heretics of Dune ##### God Emperor of Dune ##### Children of Dune ##### Dune Messiah ##### Dune ##### The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine ##### The Right Stuff