Continuing a trend started way back in the seventh post on this blog, a summary of the books that I read this year.

Recaps

Potential spoilers, of course, for all the books described below.

Knights of Wind and Truth¹ - 2024-12-25 -> 2025-01-08

Book Five of the Stormlight Archive. This book attracted well-deserved criticism for needing more editing - some dialogue was anachronistic or had inconsistent tone, and the plot features the most obvious “filler” chunk of any Cosmere work that I can recall.

Still, though. Branderson remains unmatched for human-scale drama within epic-scale plots, and for magic systems that are both internally consistent and narratively satisfying. The quality level would have to dip way more than this for me to jump ship from the Cosmere.

Wheel Of Time 9-14 (& 0) - 2025-01-10 -> 2025-04-12

More specifically:

• WH - 2025-01-10 2025-01-27
• CoT - 2025-01-27 -> 2025-02-11
• NS - 2025-02-19 -> 2025-02-23
• KoD - 2025-02-24 -> 2025-03-20
• TGS - 2025-03-20 -> 2025-04-06
• ToM - 2025-04-06 -> 2025-04-12
• AMoL - 2025-04-12 -> 2025-05-11

Talking of “quality dips”…

I started reading this series last year, and my opinion hasn’t changed since then ("it started feeling like a slog around book 5 and didn’t really improve.") until Sanderson’s final three books, which lifted the energy somewhat but still couldn’t redeem the series to truly enjoyable.

I don’t think I regret reading it, for a couple of reasons…

• It’s central to the canon. Like Tolkein², every epic fantasy series is in relation to it, even if that relation is deliberate rejection. For literary analysis and for discussion with other readers, it’s a useful familiar reference point.
• I’ve had difficulty in recent years with finishing things - both media (books/TV shows) and projects. I am a firm believer that there is no inherent virtue in finishing a book³ from which you’re not deriving value (enjoyment, knowledge, and/or self-improvement) - but abandoning things too early is also incorrect. Flexing my follow-through muscles was a useful exercise, here.

…but I’m also glad that it’s over.

Learning Domain-Driven Design - 2024-02-09 -> 2025-05-11

As mentioned last year, I’d started reading this with the LegalZoom Book Club. For unfortunate reasons I wasn’t able to make the last few sessions, so I finished it under my own steam.

Like I mentioned last year, taking notes as I went along was fruitful and enjoyable (in fact, I re-read the LD-DD notes while writing this post). Having gotten some (physical and temporal) distance from That One Coworker™️, I’ve been able to recognize my distaste for Event Sourcing as being a displaced-dislike for him. Don’t get me wrong, it still sounds like it’s usually more trouble than it’s worth - but I do now recognize and acknowledge that the set of situations where it would be useful is non-empty.

The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect - 2025-06-03

A short-story (I read it in an afternoon, if I recall) available here, via the Hacker News article wherein I discovered it.

Hoo boy, this is…a lot. As I was warned repeatedly in the comments:

• the first 5 chapters are a pretty compelling sci-fi narrative, albeit featuring excessively shocking scenes for genuinely narratively-justified reasons.
• the last chapter - essentially an epilogue to the real story - introduces a whole new setting and vibe, apparently with the sole aim of gratuitously crowbarring-in another, very differently-shocking, scene.

So…idk, man. I already know of good work that I deliberately don’t recommend for various reasons:

• I think they’re a huge investment and I wouldn’t want someone to persevere-through-enjoyment because of my recommendation⁴.
• although I loved the good bits of them, the bad bits are bad enough that I don’t want them associated with me⁵.

Maybe this falls into the second bucket. Some internet commenters mentioned that they’d deliberately mirrored the content themselves but leaving off the last chapter, so that they could recommend that to friends without the sixth chapter even coming up. I get it.

The City And The City - 06-04 -> 06-14

My notes say ‘Enjoyable, though the “anti-fantasy” aspect meant it felt a little underwhelming or frustrating. Perhaps intentional!". That’s inline with my memory - I remember being intrigued⁶, but also concerned that my interest wouldn’t be paid off⁷, and the latter fear proved correct. I do fear that it may have been too clever for me, and that some allusion or parallel or metaphor went over my head. I got the obvious metaphor for racial integration, or governmental control and propaganda during a regime change - but it felt like there should have been something more tangible to it to warrant all the hype I see it get.

Maybe this is just another example of A Fire Upon The Deep, though, where nothing could possibly have lived up to the hype, and the lesson is that I should just stop listening to hype.

Broken Earth 2 & 3 - 07-01 -> 07-20

• The Obelisk Gate - 07-01 -> 07-07
• The Stone Sky - 07-07 -> 07-20

(Recommended by the discerning and wise Stephanie)

I could have sworn I had read number 2, “The Obelisk Gate”, before - and on a re-read, there were definitely portions that felt eerily familiar - but enough was unknown or unpredictable to me that this felt like reading a whole fresh new book.

I definitely picked up on way more of the sexualized relationship of the Guardian and Orogene this time. Maybe that’s just hangover from having just finished The Wheel Of Time - Warder Bond says what?

The Stone Sky was entirely new to me, though. Very cool! Strong emotional beats and incredible world-building, and the magic system felt visceral and real and brutal⁸. I enjoyed it a lot.

Isles Of The Emberdark - 07-24 -> 07-29

If there is ever one of these articles where I don’t include a new Sanderson work, go send medical teams to check on both him and on me.

A lovely sequel to the original short story, explicitly expanding on the world and integrating it into the Cosmere. Sanderson is where he thrives, using magic as metaphor to explore mental and emotional state and growth. A very enjoyable story on its own merits, and raises the hype even more for Era 3.

Harry Potter And The Methods Of Rationality - 07-30 -> 08-23

(a.k.a. HPMOR)

I guess this was a year for “finishing lengthy and iconic works that we’d previously abandoned”, what with The Wheel Of Time and now this.

I think I’d gotten up to about 7/8 of the way through this before; I honestly can’t recall why I bailed out.

It’s…y’know, this is the year for Questionable Favs⁹, I’ll go ahead and say it - this is a pretty great book that was written by (by all accounts) a bit of a dickhead (at best), and which could probably be interpreted negatively by dickheads. Much like I worried that Business Bros would get the wrong end of the stick in Thinking Fast And Slow and use it to justify soulless ultra-mechanization-for-profit; so, here, I could worry that those on the peripherary of the Manosphere might think that this ultra-stoic constipatedly-rationalist lifestyle is something to be emulated, rather than an intellectual construct to enjoy poking at.

So, y’know - I enjoyed it, while worrying about the kind of people who might enjoy it too much, if you know what I mean¹⁰.

The Locked Tomb Series - 08-28 -> 09-25

• Gideon 08-28 -> 08-30
• Harrow 08-30 -> 09-13
• Unsent 09-14 -> 09-15
• Nona 09-15 -> 09-25

Hooo-leee sheeeeet. This was a fun rollercoaster.

I’d been recommended this series - “Lesbian Necromancers In Space” - several years back (hat-tip Kiko!), but hadn’t picked it up. Can’t remember what prompted it this year, but wow it was fun. I’ve never seen an author make such big swings in genre between books in a series - from Gothic Mystery to a Sci-Fi-Epic/whodunnit mash-up to a grounded-sci-fi rebellion story - while maintaining the essential core of the characters and continuing to flesh out the world. I was admittedly so puzzled by the symbolism of the last book that I had to text a friend to understand it; but boy, were the vibes immaculate horrifying, decaying, putrid, yet compelling. Looking forward to the next one!

War For The Oaks - 09-29 -> 10-10

An odd one, this. My “Books To Read” noteboard has this recorded as “from Olivia’s recommendation” - but Olivia has no memory of such a recommendation. Ah well.

It was…fine? It certainly urbaned a fantasy. Compared with works like the Dresden Files or The Matthew Swift series, though, the powers-that-be felt more abstract and theoretical than forceful.

Riders - 10-14 -> 11-18

I heard that Dame Jilly Cooper passed away this year, and was moved to return to Rutshire. After all, I had fond memories of the rural horniness from reading some of the series as an appropriately-horny tean; surely it had aged well now that I had a more-mature understanding of sex and consent (and sexism and racism and classism and intersectionality and and…)? Surely?

Reader, it had not.

No shame to anyone who enjoys this - it is the year of Problematic Favs, apparently, and I am not gonna wade into the debate of “porn should model healthy behaviour” vs. a free-speech tinged “you should trust the audience to identify unhealthy behaviour” - but, it’s not for me.

Kinda interested in trying some of this modern Romantasy that the Internet has spoken so much about, though. It must be better than Twilight/Fifty Shades, surely?

The Scholomance Series - 11-26 -> 12-22

• A Deadly Education - 11-26 -> 11-29
• The Last Graduate - 11-30 -> 12-11
• The Golden Enclaves - 12-12 -> 12-22

I can’t now find the post, but I saw this pitched on social media as “A Capitalism-Is-The-Bad-Guy story which spends three whole books building up a magic system just consistent-enough so that you can understand quite what a monumental undertaking a particular feat is”. As a fan of Brennan Lee Mulligan and Brandon Sanderson, this was too tempting to resist.

I loved it! The comparison with Branderson isn’t quite apt - the magic system isn’t purely vibes, but it’s much more metaphorical than Brando’s crunchily-defined systems - but it leant into the emotional vibes that much harder. I was genuinely teary-eyed at the end of the second book, and I raised eyebrows in horrified surprise repeatedly in book three. Highly recommended, and I’m looking forward to the Temeraire series.

(the series inspired this post, btw. Also go watch Misfits And Magic)

Full List and Stats

1. Winter’s Heart
2. Crossroads Of Twilight
3. New Spring
4. Knife Of Dreams
5. The Gathering Storm
6. Towers Of Midnight
7. A Memory Of Light
8. Learning Domain-Driven Design
9. The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect
10. The City And The City
11. The Obelisk Gate
12. The Stone Sky
13. Isles Of The Emberdark
14. Harry Potter And The Methods Of Rationality
15. Gideon The Ninth
16. Harrow The Ninth
17. As Yet Unsent
18. Nona The Ninth
19. War For The Oaks
20. Riders
21. A Deadly Education
22. The Last Graduate
23. The Golden Enclaves

• 22 Fiction, 1 Non-Fiction (HPMOR might wish it was non-fiction, but it ain’t)
• 12 by men, 11 by women. I’m a little ashamed to say that that’s the closest to parity that I think I’ve ever come. And if you count HPMOR as the multiple books it is equivalent to, that’s even worse.
• 2 books by a non-white author (Obelisk Gate + Stone Sky by N. K. Jemisin)

Summing up, and looking forward

Goals

I nearly achieved gender parity in content, though the other criteria fall far behind. My previous idea of alternativing fiction with non-fiction certainly didn’t work out.

…cutting myself some slack, it’s been a tough year.

General Quality

Quality was markedly better this time around. With the exception of the WoT (which I already knew would be middling) and parts of War For The Oaks and Riders, there were no points where I felt I was slogging through.

Articles

Unlike last year, I actually did read a decent crop of articles this year, which I think deserve their own standalone post.

Looking ahead

• I’m excited to hear that there’s a fourth book in the Children Of Time series, which I enjoyed a lot last year.
• As mentioned above, the Temeraire series sounds promising.
• I expensed “Crafting Interpreters” at work - based on general good reputation, but admittedly jolted over the line by the empathetic humanity of this.
• Looking back at haul I got from Barnes & Noble, I used/consumed a sum total of a single item. Honestly about what I expected.

• End-of-Year-Wrapups
• Reading