Sunday Status Update: January 1, 2023

Marion: I reread Robert Jackson Bennett’s DIVINE CITIES series, and it was as good as I remembered. The day before Christmas a friend lent me Legendborn by Tracy Deonn, a YA fantasy adventure. I enjoyed it, although I think a young reader would enjoy it far more. While I liked the sixteen-year-old MC, it reminded me that one of things I’d especially enjoyed about the Bennett books was mature protagonists!

Bill:

This past week I read:

• An excellent genre novel — The City We Became by N.K Jemisin  (halfway through the sequel)
• An excellent genre novella — Arch-Conspirator, by Veronica Roth, a sci-fi reimaging of Antigone
• A somewhat disappointing collecting of genre-related essays with a few standouts —  Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women of Horror, edited by Lee Murray and Angela Yuriko
• An excellent non-fiction look at some positive stories from the conservation world — Tenacious Beasts, by Christopher J. Preston
• A mostly good collection of essays on the impact of our blasting our world with light — The Darkness Manifesto by Johan Eklöf (translated by Elizabeth DeNoma)

Sandy: Moi? First of all, a very Happy and Healthy New Year to you all! As you may or may not have noticed, all the books that I’ve read and written about for the past five years, be they in the fields of sci-fi, fantasy or horror, have all had one thing in common: They were all written during the period 1900 – 1950. This was a little reading project of mine that I called Project Pulp when it first started; a reading project that was originally intended to last for only one year. But I was having so much fun with it that I decided to extend it a year, and then another, and then another … and so here we are, five years later. Well, it’s been a fun ride, to say the least, but all good things must come to an end. I now find myself wanting to get back into books of a more recent and modern vintage; to explore what has been going on in more up-to-date times. Now, please don’t be alarmed … when a person’s tastes tend to the antiquarian, as do mine, it is almost inevitable that he/she will be reverting to type eventually. But for now, literature of a more modern flavor is calling my name. Thus, my first book of the New Year will be Leigh Brackett’s The Big Jump, which first saw the light of day in 1953. I look forward to being able to share some thoughts on this one with you all very shortly….

Terry: Happy New Year! I’ve discovered Louise Penny’s THREE PINES mystery series – better late than never, I suppose. I’ve torn through the first two books and downloaded the third. I’m trying not to just read them all back to back. I also read Veronica Roth’s Arch-Conspirator, a take on Antigone of Greek mythology, which is coming out soon; it’s done quite well, even if the far future setting doesn’t really come to life. I also finished Samanta Schweblin’s Mouthful of Birds, a collection of niblets of stories, mostly of the surreal variety and great fun. I had hoped to finish all the books in which I have a bookmark by the end of the year, but that didn’t happen: I’m still reading The High Mountain Court by A.K. Mulford (a pleasant fantasy); The Embroidered Book by Kate Heartfield (quite good, but somehow easier to put down than to pick up again); Elric of Melnibone by Michael Moorcock (very good, but again, easier to put down than to pick up again); and Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (simply brilliant). And I’m going to allow myself to pick up Ruled Brittania by Harry Turtledove because it’s due at the library soon; the first paragraph is really promising!