2025 Reading Challenge discussion
ARCHIVE 2019
>
The Carousel Returns: Paul reads at least 250 books in 2019 probably
Book #87
"The Court Magician", by Sarah Pinsker
10 pages
Reread sometime this year
Why I read it: It's a finalist for this year's Hugo Award for Best Short Story.
Rating: *** - Sixth on my ballot under No Award; not because it's a bad story, I'd just be disappointed if it won. It's quite good actually, it's got a compelling sense of style, it inexorably builds and builds, and it feels like it's reaching at something tangible without being too overt without it. The problem comes at the end, where it quite frankly seems to lose the courage of its convictions and just peters out, where I would have expected/liked to see a more barnstorming conclusion. Comes across as a weird homage to "Those Who Walk Away from Omelas" that doesn't recognise the importance of moving on. So yeah, good story, but not quite great.
Book #88(E)
"The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington", by P. Djéli Clark
12 pages
Read sometime this year
Why I read it: It's a finalist for this year's Hugo Award for Best Short Story.
Rating: **** - Stunning. Absolutely stunning. Takes a while for the story to unfurl what it's doing, but once you realise that it's an alternate secret magical history of the American War of Independence it takes off and never looks back. Admittedly it's partly because the order I'd read the final six in meant that I had my two least favourite ones just before this, but this was a clear winner from pretty much the moment I finished it and stayed there through the next three. It's more of a set of nine disparate mini-narratives rather than what I would usually call a short story, but it's a structure that works really well. Clark manages to pull it all together into a cohesive picture of a time without it managing to feel repetitive or reductive. Full to bursting with ideas and variations and tension and dread and... yeah. It's brilliant. In my meanest moments I think it's far and away the best story on the ballot. Most of the time I think it's just ("just") the best story on the ballot by a wide margin, and thinking about how it's already won the Nebula and Locus leaves me feeling weirdly gratified. To be honest I will in fact be deeply disappointed if this doesn't win the Hugo. It deserves it.
Book #89
Molten Heart, by Una McCormack
208 pages
Read 18th March 2019
Why I read it: I wanted to get more of that Doctor Who Series 11 goodness.
Rating: **** - Not as good as The Good Doctor, but still great stuff. Has a real neat sense of just exploring the world, trying to understand and explain it to and together with its inhabitants, with no real monsters, just people being people. It really believes in the Doctor, and has its own unusual set of obsessions that builds and expands to something quite compelling. Didn't exactly stick in my memory, but I am very glad I read it.
Book #90
Fullmetal Alchemist: Volume 7, written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa
200 pages
Read 16th to 18th March 2019
Why I read it: More Fullmetal Alchemist.
Rating: ****
Book #91
The Farthest Shore, by Ursula K. Le Guin
320 pages
Read 19th to 21st March 2019
Why I read it: Continuing with the Earthsea series.
Rating: **** - A return to more of the style of A Wizard of Earthsea after The Tombs of Atuan, and a book that has almost as much to offer. A sort of coming of age story combined with a culmination, an exploration of the world, and a true journey into the dark. Makes for a great ending to the original trilogy.
Book #92
Combat Magicks, by Steve Cole
272 pages
Read 19th to 21st March 2019
Why I read it: Finishing off the first batch of Doctor Who Series 11 books.
Rating: *** - A nice time even if it doesn't quite live up to the other books. I mean, it's Steve Cole though. He's probably a lovely guy and I've read at least one other book of his (non-Doctor Who to boot!), but he's been doing this for a long time now. And it's likely not a coincidence that the two authors with less history of the series delivered books that were fresher. Still though, I quite liked reading this. It's zippy and fun and decently characterised and blends a bunch of stuff together, and did genuinely make my mind bubble over with strange ideas. Very much a book solidly in the tradition of the New Series Adventures though - decent stuff, not exactly anything to write home about.
Book #93
Doctor Who: Flip-Flop, by Jonathan Morris
2 hours, 6 minutes = 126 pages
Listened to 20th to 21st March 2019
Why I listened to it: Continuing to listen to the first 50 Big Finish Main Range releases.
Rating: ** - Bad. When it's not being odious and thumbing its nose at immigrants, it's just being all grim and grey and sceptical about the potential of revolution. Not to mention that the "listen to the two discs in either order" gimmick is basically pointless. Avoid.
Book #94
Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Vol. 4, written by Nick Abadzis and illustrated by Eleonora Carlini, Elena Casagrande, Claudia Iannicello, Arianna Florean
128 pages
Read 19th to 22nd March 2019
Why I read it: Reading more of my Titan Doctor Who comics.
Rating: *** - Still nice stuff, but ended in a weird place that doesn't leave me very inclined to continue.
Book #95
"Knowledgeable Creatures", by Christopher Rowe
32 pages
Read 22nd March 2019
Why I read it: Another tor.com short story.
Rating: *** - Intriguing, but somewhat fundamentally misjudged and too rambling and inconclusive. Not the best.
Book #96
"Old Media", by Annalee Newitz
25 pages
Read 22nd March 2019
Why I read it: Another tor.com short story.
Rating: **** - A gorgeous exploration of a future, the meaning we attach to popular culture, and working out a new way of being. Something I still remember, and remember fondly, all these months later. Definitely worth reading.
Book #97
Time and Relative, by Kim Newman
120 pages
Read 22nd to 23rd March 2019
Why I read it: Reading more Doctor Who books by hopping over (in theory) to the Telos Novellas.
Rating: **** - Fascinating. Newman takes the somewhat limited characterisation Susan got in the original episodes and builds this strange and compelling portrait that jars initially because it goes so against what you remember, but really delivers once you open yourself up to it. The original Doctor is as distant and unsettling as we've ever seen him, if not more so - you really get the sense of going back to an unknown, inchoate time where anything could happen. Plus it does a good job of depicting 1963 society reduced to desperation and unexpected heroism. Definitely an outstanding start to the novellas.
Book #98
The Country Girls, by Edna O'Brien
240 pages
Read 23rd to 26th March 2019
Why I read it: I got a copy of the trilogy because it's this year's One City One Book for Dublin, and I was going to the play with some friends from work.
Rating: **** - I don't like it as much as I remember, it comes across feeling somewhat slight in places, but it's still good stuff. Oddly fresh and vital, even after all these years, and with real undercurrents of unease. The ending I'm not sure what to make of it, it's perhaps a little too anticlimactic and unresolving, which doesn't take away much from the book though it's still something to bear in mind.
Book #99
Doctor Who Short Trips: Zodiac, edited by Jacqueline Rayner
192 pages
Read 24th to 28th March 2019
Why I read it: Reading more old Doctor Who books by dipping into the Big Finish Short Trips series.
Rating: ** - Quite bad. The linking device is pointless, esoteric, and weakly incorporated, and the stories for the most part aren't much to write home about either. Avoid.
Book #100
Agent Provocateur, written by Gary Russell and illustrated by Nick Roche, José María Beroy, Stefano Martino, Mirco Pierfederici
144 pages
Read 25th to 29th March 2019
Why I read it: Reading more of my Doctor Who comics.
Rating: ** - Terrible art combined with an absolute cluster of plots doesn't make for a particularly fine time. Should've stayed in the archives.
Book #101
Doctor Who: Omega, by Nev Fountain
2 hours, 22 minutes = 142 pages
Listened to 25th to 29th March 2019
Why I listened to it: Finishing up the first 50 Big Finish Main Range releases.
Rating: *** - Not exactly spectacular, but does pull off a neat twist or two with some compelling things to say about history and historicisation. I had a good time.
Book #102
Monstress #21, written by Marjorie M. Liu and illustrated by Sana Takeda
28 pages
Read 30th March 2019
Why I read it: It's Monstress!
Rating: *** - Fine? It was a very setup-heavy issue though.
Book #103
Fullmetal Alchemist: Volume 8, written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa
192 pages
Read 30th to 31st March 2019
Why I read it: More Fullmetal Alchemist.
Rating: ****
Book #104
The Warcraft Civilization: Social Science in a Virtual World, by William Sims Bainbridge
248 pages
Read 27th to 31st March 2019
Why I read it: It was in a Humble Bundle on ludology and looked interesting.
Rating: *** - An odd book. Sometimes it comes across as an elaborate excuse for the writer to write World of Warcraft fanfic, some of which is good. The rest of the time it's a pretty neat 101 look at World of Warcraft, and I liked finally getting a sense of what the game is actually like. Honestly though I'm not sure I was the appropriate audience for this. For the most part it seems more aimed at social scientists, attempting to convince them that video games and WoW more specifically are valid objects of study, and as a result dips into a lot of stuff I find to be pretty basic. Not a bad time all in all though.
Book #105
Strange Horizons 2019 March, edited by Vanessa Rose Phin
235 pages
Read March to April 2019
Why I read it: It's Strange Horizons!
Rating: ****
Book #106
Doctor Who Short Trips: Companions, edited by Jacqueline Rayner
192 pages
Read 29th March to 1st April 2019
Why I read it: More Big Finish Short Trips books.
Rating: *** - Good enough as early 2000s Doctor Who official tie-in fiction goes.
Book #107
Doctor Who: The Forgotten, written by Tony Lee and illustrated by Pia Guerra
144 pages
Read 1st to 5th April 2019
Why I read it: Reading more of my Doctor Who comics.
Rating: *** - Not too bad, not too great. A nice big steaming heap of fanservice and nods that adds up to about exactly what you'd expect. Didn't mind reading it, but I wouldn't exactly recommend it.
Book #108
Die #5, written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Stephanie Hans
32 pages
Read 7th April 2019
Why I read it: Still reading Die.
Rating: **** - Chalk this up to the power of reading with friends. I'm still not entirely convinced this works, it's quite a headwrecker that reintroduces things from out of left field to the extent that I was left scratching my head wondering how well-established they had been. Thankfully though I had aforementioned people on hand to clarify just what was going on, so as a result I dug it a lot more. Should probably pull it out before issue 6 drops to see what I actually think of it now, but I doubt I'll have the opportunity to.
Book #109
Doctor Who: Davros, by Lance Parkin
2 hours, 32 minutes = 152 pages
Listened to 6th to 7th April 2019
Why I listened to it: Continuing to listen to the first 50 Big Finish Main Range releases.
Rating: **** - Honestly really interesting. Don't remember that much about it, but it did great work thrusting the Doctor and Davros into new situations and deepening and enlivening the old bastard's character. Definitely the best of that 47-49 villain trilogy Big Finish did.
Book #110
Monstrous Regiment, by Terry Pratchett
380 pages
Read 4th to 9th April
Why I read it: Doing my best to get back to Discworld.
Rating: **** - Brilliant, and probably the book that Night Watch should have been. Builds and builds with savage insight, solid characterisation, and twists and turns that serve to further cement the main themes of the piece. Which is what you want really. Doesn't consistently come together, the ending especially is probably a bit elongated, but easily one of the best Discworld books there's ever been.
Book #111
The Tin Drum, by Gunter Grass
565 pages
Read 1st to 10th April
Why I read it: It was in the work rent-a-book scheme, and I'd been meaning to read it for a long while now.
Rating: **** - Good! I think. It's quite long, but always engaging, even if you're not always entirely sure what it's aiming for. Makes for a very good and anarchic social history of the time, and populated by a wealth of fascinating characters. Not sure if I would necessarily say it's all that, but I'm absolutely glad I read it, and not just because I can say that I've read it.
Book #112
All Systems Red, by Martha Wells
156 pages
Read 10th to 11th April
Why I read it: I knew Artificial Condition would be a Hugo finalist this year so I reread this after reading it last year to see what I thought of it now.
Rating: ** - Actively kind of bad tbh. There are too many characters, none of them get enough definition, and the whole thing is just very generic and uninvolving. Really the only reason to read this is the promise of Murderbot, and Murderbot isn't that great here, just a snarky asshole with character quirks inspired by better series and a personality in conflict with itself in what feels like an emotionally non-honest way. Truth be told I wouldn't have minded so much - I liked this book a good bit more the first time I read it without still really liking it - had this book not somehow won the Hugo, the Nebula, the Locus, and an Alex award. And the way everyone seemed to love this book without being really able to concretely explain why. Sometimes it was legitimately pacy and pulpy and kind of interesting though! Then Murderbot gets knocked out for the climax, the mystery is explained so perfunctorily I straight up skipped over it rereading the book and had to go back to find out what actually happened, and the denouement is straightforwardly dull. I will eventually get what Wells is doing with this series, and why everybody loves Murderbot, but quite frankly this should go down in history as a bad decision. Why does it even exist? I'm not convinced that Artificial Condition needs it; it'd honestly be stronger without it. In my darkest moments I wonder if the same book published under a different name would have done as well. But yeah, do not recommend.
Book #113
"If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again", by Zen Cho
30 pages
Read 12th April
Why I read it: It was a finalist for this year's Hugo for Best Novelette.
Rating: **** - Absolutely stunning, and managed to leapfrog The Only Harmless Great Thing to the top of my ballot, which I didn't think would ever happen. It's hilarious, moving, cathartic, nicely mingles several genres without ever letting the mix get overpowered, and has one hell of a dramatic arc. I need to read way more Zen Cho than I do, but for the most part it'll be stuff that came out a while back (Spirits Abroad basically), so it's delightful to see that she's still doing brilliant work.
Book #114
Doctor Who: Master, by Joe Lidster
2 hours, 12 minutes = 132 pages
Listened to 8th to 12th April
Why I listened to it: Nearly finished with the first 50 Big Finish Doctor Who Main Range releases.
Rating: *** - Doesn't quite work for me. It's doing intriguing things, certainly, but for the most part I'm not really sure what those things are. Would have liked to like it better, and it does have some strong performances, but I'd have preferred it to be more cohesive than it was.
Book #115
Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet, Book 1, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates and illustrated by Brian Stelfreeze
144 pages
Read 8th to 13th April
Why I read it: Think I got it in one of those times I bought a whole pile of Marvel comics, over this volume being a Hugo finalist for Best Graphic Story.
Rating: *** - Looks really nice while ultimately coming across as a collection of images and situations that never satisfyingly pulls together into an overall whole. I've definitely read better comics in my time.
Book #116
"The Landholders No Longer Carry Swords", by Patricia Russo
15 pages
Read 14th April
Why I read it: Still going through the Giganotosaurus back pages.
Rating: *** - Don't remember a whole lot about it, but looking over it now it just seems very conventional? Quite a good story in fairness, but didn't do much to excite me either.
Book #117
"The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections", by Tina Connolly
30 pages
Read 15th April
Why I read it: It was a finalist for this year's Hugo Award for Best Novelette.
Rating: **** - Really good. It builds and builds as it goes, has fantastic descriptions of fantastical foods, uses its alternating past and present with section breaks structure to great effect, and while it peters out a little in the end in favour of some raw and straightforward hope, that's really only a problem in the context of the rest of the ballot. This may have come in fifth on my ballot, but fifth is no shame when the quality of the category is as high as it is this year (exceptionally high). I'll say this for every novelette up for the award, but if this won then I wouldn't complain at all. Or at least not much.
Book #118
Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti, by Genevieve Valentine
290 pages
Read 11th to 16th April 2019
Why I read it: Got in a Humble Bundle.
Rating: **** - Surprisingly strong. Shrugs off superficial comparisons to something like The Night Circus by being a lot more... well, mechanical, but it also carves out its own niche by being rawly about the joy and horror of performance, and what performance can bring to those who take part in it and those who experience it, and then blithely unmoors the whole thing in time and sets it in the middle of a forever war. Really something special.
Book #119
Doctor Who: Zagreus, by Alan Barnes
3 hours, 55 minutes = 235 minutes
Listened to 15th to 18th April 2019
Why I listened to it: Finishing up with the last of the first 50 Doctor Who Main Range releases.
Rating: *** - Doesn't quite work, in part because it's a little too mired in what Neverland was doing, but pulls so many odd choices that I can't help but admire it. I know things go horribly south eventually with the Eighth Doctor and Charley when they get Philip Martin in for some reason and he does that thing that he always does, and I can't really speak for the rest of the Main Range - though I hear it has its ups and downs - but when I got to the end of this I was surprised to find that I actually did want it to continue. I'm not sure if it ever will (for me at least), but in that sense, Big Finish? Mission accomplished!
Book #120
Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet, Book Two
143 pages
Read 15th to 19th April 2019
Why I read it: Reading the rest of my Black Panther comics.
Rating: *** - Better than Book One, but I dunno, it still didn't really do that much for me. Most of the scenes and concepts were neat, though I guess I was a little at a loss as to what Coates was specifically aiming for here, and what the exact utility of it is.
Book #121
Fullmetal Alchemist: Volume 9, written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa
192 pages
Read 19th to 20th April 2019
Why I read it: More Fullmetal Alchemist.
Rating: **** - I have very fond memories of this volume. A bunch of stuff is building up and very much about to kick off, and I love it.
Book #122
"Painless", by Rich Larson
24 pages
Read 21st April 2019
Why I read it: The latest tor.com short story.
Rating: *** - Solid enough while not doing a whole lot for me. I think part of that is the overall mood of this story is one that I'm just not very interested in, and it went for a kind of genre layering that didn't really pay off. The ending is nice though, if a little clichéd in its "angsty murdering man finds redemption" vibe. Very rarely do they turn out like this, so it's got that in its favour.
Book #123
Tehanu, by Ursula K. Le Guin
320 pages
Read 17th to 21st April 2019
Why I read it: Still reading Earthsea.
Rating: **** - Brilliant. Fantasy took up the lessons this book had to give us, and in some quarters fantasy still needs to learn them, but after all these years Tehanu manages to feel fresh. The continuation The Tombs of Atuan was crying out for, this book manages to strip things back even further and focus resolutely on character and a sense of ordinary type, and nobly attempts to unpack the differences between men and women and why those differences even exist, even if I still feel it ends up being a little too essentialist for my liking, and why things have to be the way they are. I'm not convinced the ending quite works, it walks the line between accurately depicting trauma and wallowing in it before taking off to a sphere that's slightly too big than that the rest of the book has dealt with, even if it was foreshadowed quite neatly. Still though, a fine example of the genre, even if the fantasy has nearly all been drained out.
Book #124
The Only Harmless Great Thing, by Brooke Bolander
93 pages
Read 22nd April 2019
Why I read it: It was a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Novelette, so I wanted to read it again to compare it to the rest of the final six. (It didn't win, but in the end I put it under Cho's "If At First you Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again" and that won, and I'm absolutely delighted it did! Plus a Nebula and Locus for Best Novelette is hardly nothing.)
Rating: **** - You know, I'll admit it, this doesn't work quite as well as it did the first time I read it. Part of it might be that the sheer impact of it only properly works once and if you read it again you realise how the trick is done and the dazzle has worn off. Part of it was definitely that I was now aware that it was a novelette and not a novella (though it is under consideration for other awards as a novella) and I started conjecturing where it may have been edited to fit at novelette length. To put it simply, things happen very quickly sometimes in this book, it definitely feels like a novelette - which isn't a bad thing, but I think I could've done with more connective tissue at certain points. On the other hand though this is still mostly an absolute knockout, finely honed and scattershot and rickety, awash with invention and filigree and indignation, and it turns out it was even more thematically unified than I thought it was. Fifth in this year's Hugo ballot seems harsh but eminently understandable, and again it was an overwhelmingly banner year for the category.
Book #125
Fullmetal Alchemist: Volume 10, written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa
200 pages
Read 22nd April 2019
Why I read it: More Fullmetal Alchemist.
Rating: **** - The stuff kicked off. It was great. Even if in hindsight that one character feels like she stuck around for a surprisingly short time.
Book #126
Portable Childhoods, by Ellen Klages
224 pages
Read 22nd to 25th April 2019
Why I read it: I got it in a Humble Bundle.
Rating: **** - Gets better as it goes along, or I could've just got more accustomed to Klages's style and mien, and definitely earns its fourth star by the end, but only the end. Not all the stories work, though a second reading might work to improve some as I'd have a better idea of what tricks they pull, or don't. At the same time I still reckon Klages is at her best in a longer form than the short story, i.e. Passing Strange. Of course Passing Strange isn't all that different from the stuff in Portable Childhoods at all. It's stretched out, but the ratio of fantastical to realistic is much the same. I really liked luxuriating in the setting, I suppose.
Book #127
"Mama Bruise", by Jonathan Carroll
26 pages
Read 27th April 2019
Why I read it: Another tor.com short story.
Rating: *** - Fine but over familiar, and spends a lot of time on simply explaining itself.
Book #128
"Nine Last Days on Planet Earth", by Daryl Gregory
42 pages
Reread sometime in 2019
Why I read it: It was a finalist for the Hugo for Best Novelette.
Rating: **** - Brilliant, and I can't believe I didn't realise it sooner. It doesn't entirely work - a certain amount of coincidence is arguably inherent to the format Gregory decided to use, but in certain sections I think just one pivotal thing too many happens than the story can support - but it unfolds and develops beautifully, and manages to be more resonant than I even expected it. And heck, I think especially now I'm into stories of people trying to survive seismic change and work it out while building themselves up too and holding onto each other. It came fourth on my ballot, but fourth in this final six is, as ever, no shame at all.
Book #129
Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet, Book Three
144 pages
Read 23rd to 27th April 2019
Why I read it: Reading the rest of my Black Panther comics.
Rating: *** - I run out of Black Panther comics. It's been... fine? It's been fine.
Book #130
Doctor Who: Farewell, Great Macedon, by Moris Farhi and Nigel Robinson
3 hours, 40 minutes + 33 minutes = 253 pages
Listened to 23rd to 29th April 2019
Why I listened to it: I had a free Audible credit so decided to pick this up to honour old Farhi's memory.
Rating: **** - Superb. Fully in the tradition of the Hartnell historicals, and very well paced and acted to boot with most of the characters getting plenty to do. I want to say that it's a shame that this never got made, although in fairness I have no idea if it would have actually turned out like this. In any case, this is the version we got, and I'm delighted to have it. The Lost Stories effectively justify themselves with this release alone.
Book #131
The Tea Master and the Detective, by Aliette de Bodard
96 pages
Read 29th April 2019
Why I read it: It was a finalist for this year's Hugo Award for Best Novella, and I wanted to read it again to see what I thought of it.
Rating: **** - Really quite good, though I'm not as enamoured with it as I'd like. It's got strong characterisation, is appropriately appealingly different in its aesthetic choices, and is precisely as long as it needs to be, which in a way was really quite refreshing. On the other hand, its efficiency can also be somewhat disarming at times, and in general there's just a little less to this than I'd like. It's a deft Sherlock Holmes pastiche, admittedly with a pile of genderswap and where Watson is a frigging sentient spaceship, and it's got characters working through their traumas and a solid mystery, and... that's about it really. If anything it's a good start to an ongoing series that will probably never happen, partly because de Bodard has no plans to write it and partly because that's not how the Universe of Xuya tends to work. I'll happily admit that I might be being too harsh on this though, winning the Nebula and coming second in the Hugo ballot as it did. Tbh the novella was an odd category this year, I'd need to read the entire final ballot again to be sure of what I think and I'm not sure I'd make the same choices now as I did then.
Book #132
Doctor Who: The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance, by Moris Farhi and Nigel Robinson
36 minutes = 36 pages
Listened to 30th April 2019
Why I listened to it: Finishing up the First Doctor Boxset.
Rating: *** - A bit of a strange one. Solid enough, but I found it very hard to latch on. Really though I was just disarmed by the way it was only half an hour long and started essentially a few episodes into a story where, admittedly, the interesting stuff really only happens here. If I had seen more of the central relationship that sets everything off I'd probably have been happy. Thankfully this is short enough that it's not too big of an investment to listen to it again, and I might well end up doing that at some point.
Book #133
Strange Horizons 2019 April, edited by Vanessa Rose Phin
248 pages
Read April to May 2019
Why I read it: More Strange Horizons.
Rating: ****
Book #134
Beneath the Sugar Sky, by Seanan McGuire
157 pages
Read 30th April to 1st May 2019
Why I read it: It was a finalist for this year's Hugo Award for Best Novella, and I wanted to read it again to see whether I'd misjudged it or not.
Rating: **** - Reader, I absolutely had. This is still a little slippery to grasp, it rushes through some things more than I thought it did, lingers a little weirdly on certain aspects (though it usually justifies it by the end), and gets a bit awkwardly didactic here and there, but for the most part it's brilliant. Dramatic, with a broad sweep but resolutely focussed on its characters, and brings out what joy and sadness there is to be found without overburdening the mixture too much. A fine novella, and one I was glad to ultimately put second in my final six.
Book #135
Doctor Who: The Nightmare Fair, by Graham Williams
2 hours, 16 minutes = 136 pages
Listened to 1st to 2nd May 2019
Why I listened to it: Decided to listen to what Doctor Who Lost Stories Spotify had up.
Rating: *** - Quite fun! Nothing too special, and loses its way a little in the back half, but until then it's a fair bit better than "the return of the Celestial Toymaker" would lead you to expect. Definitely worth my time.
2025 Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 23 (other topics)Touchstone (other topics)
Pokémon Adventures, Vol. 1 (other topics)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 22 (other topics)
Doctor Who: Energy of the Daleks (other topics)
More...
Book #86
"The Rose MacGregor Drinking and Admiration Society", by T. Kingfisher
7 pages
Reread sometime this year
Why I read it: It's a finalist for this year's Hugo Award for Best Short Story.
Rating: *** - Goes straight to the bottom of my ballot under No Award. It's not a bad story, understand, it's quite nice and humorous, and even has some neat twistery at the end with future generations wreaking havoc once again. But it's a trifle. An absolute trifle. A weirdly sexual trifle, but that's just me being prudish. The way I see it there's just not much/enough going on here, and it has no place being on this ballot. Never mind "Sun, Moon, Dust"; this is absolutely a story that at least partly got here based on Vernon's fanbase. And I mean, I'm sort of with them, "The Tomato Thief" is brilliant! "Sun, Moon, Dust" is very good. This story though is neither of these things.