August Reading

My goal for 2024 is to read 30 books and I hit the 2/3 mark this month! I got a bit bored on checking books out on Libby and have been really enjoying checking physical books out again.

In addition to these books, I also read Junji Ito's Gyo and Hellstar Remina since Shelved by Genre is still on their Junji Ito unit. These were the Junji Ito works I'm less familiar with (I think everyone who has been online for the past decade is semi-familiar with Uzumaki and Tomie, or at least images from it). Gyo is a super weird one but I checked it out from the library and it was fun to read a physical copy.

Quick Links: The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands | Craft | Heir to the Empire

#19: The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks

I heard about this book because it was recommended on the Shadecast, an Inheritance re-read podcast. I think it's for the best that I read this book only knowing the basic premise and not hearing any comparisons to other novels I've seen in other reviews. This book is also testing my resolve to not include spoilers in this blog, because I think the ending is the weakest part of the book. That being said, I did enjoy reading this and would recommend it if you find the following paragraphs compelling.

This book takes place in a version of the 1800s where Siberia was transformed into a bizarre wasteland. The only crossing is on a specialized train, which had a catastrophic failure on it's previous run. The book follows 3 different people on the train on it's first run since the accident: a young Russian widow, a British naturalist, and a Chinese girl who works on the train.

The blurbs and reviews for this book have compared it to Piranesi and I found a lot of reviews that were let down by what they expected to be fantasy elements. I picked up this book kind of blind, so my interpretation of the wasteland is more scifi- leaning on the parts of the world from the Dark Tower series and Area X from Annihilation. I really enjoyed the characterization and description of the Wasteland and what it does to travelers- I did want more body horror but that's my own sicko cross to bear. It's a very slow book and I think does a good job of holding tension despite very little happening. If you like something more fast pace, this probably isn't for you. more.

I do not think this book has a very strong ending BUT *rings a bell* it's the author's first published work! So, we can forgive a little more in this book than we would later ones. This book feels like it had (or should have had) another 100 pages to flesh out side characters and make the ending a little more robust. If you want to hear my in-depth opinions on the ending, reach out to me and we can talk.

I would still recommend this book- I think you'll realize pretty quickly if you're interested in it. It's not a book that takes a while to get good, and I think the pacing is very clear from the start. Over all, please do not compare this to other works. (Just becuase it has a mystery and is on a train does not mean you should compare it to Murder on the Orient Express?? What is wrong with people?)

#20: Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil by Ananda Lima

Wow! I really, really liked this book. It's another NEW book, it was published in June 2024. It's fiction but much more based in real life than other fiction I read- it talks about the pandemic. It's also a very short read, the copy I got from the library is only 176 pages.

Like The Traveller's Guide, I think it's a bit mislabeled. I really don't consider this a horror novel At All. There's zero horror elements. The premise of the book is: a writer meets a devil at a Halloween party when she's young (and then several times after that). The book goes between the writer's real life and the short stories she writes. The short stories can technically stand on their own, but brought into the whole story they really become something special.

It's kind of meta, it's kind of dreamy, it's kind of unreal. The writing is really terrific. Ananada Lima was born in Brazil and several parts of the book draw directly from that. My favorite short story was 'Idle Hands' which isn't an actual short story but a collection of feedbacks from a writer's club for a short story. It's so interesting how the shape of the story takes place as you read each feedback item and learn more about the original (never shown) short story. Each feecback item contradicts all other feedbacks, which is also a kind of interesting bit on art and subjectivity and the nature of feedback on creative endeavors.

#21: Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn

It seems like the time has finally come for me to read some Star Wars EU. I mean, my brother read a fair amount as a boy in the early 2000s and I ended up reading the ones he owned because they were in our house. He owned the Jedi Quest series, which is a series of young reader books that fill in the episode 1 to episode 2 time gap. So not uh, the EU books people talk about or say are good.

I'm picking up the Thrawn trilogy specifically because one of my most favorite podcasts, A More Civilized Age, is going over these books right now. They mainly do the cartoons, but have taken breaks to play KotOR and now to read the Thrawn trilogy.

The book follows Luke, Leia, and Han as they navigate setting up the New Republic (which is politically not easy). It also follows the imperial fleet under Grand Admiral Thrawn, a very competent military strategist, and follows a bounty hunter named Talon Karrde (who works with Mara Jade). There's other characters in the book too. It's a book with a lot of weird guys. The book has multiple POVs it bounces between and does a terrific job utilizing that for tension. Characters motivations are a little obvious even when they're supposed to be unknown/mysterious (looking at you Mara) and it's a little cheesy. However, I did really enjoy reading it and look forward to the rest of the series.

I honestly think this book is a really good example of how to write characters with realistic reactions and plans (so, competent characters) and create conflict from those competencies. Because every character has their own agenda and doesn't always know the agenda of other characters, they end up in conflicts that didn't feel annoying or unnecessary to me. My final takeaway is that if I'd read this as a kid, I probably would've become a sci-fi flavored kid instead of a fantasy kid.

Quick Links: The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands | Craft | Heir to the Empire