July Reading List

[unicornduke]

I'm getting tired of reading triolgies to be honest, need to find some standalone books. Not that I hate the trilogies, but it's hard to remember the rest in the series is out there if I don't read it immediately

Read in July

• The Broken Heavens by Kameron Hurley - final in the series, extremely dramatic ending, lots of people die and then they fix the problem! This series was really really good even if I had trouble keeping track of people sometimes.
• Ordination by Daniel M. Ford - this was okay. But extremely religious in that a paladin is visited by a goddess and immediately founds a religion and is like, preaching and performing miracles and things. I'm not sure I'll read the rest in the series because it was so religious and that was really offputting.
• Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko and translated by Julia Meitow Hersey - really good and unsettling book where magic and reality altering powers are taught to a young woman and weird shit happens, would love to see more of her and it looks like there's a second in the series that my library has!
• Ships of Air by Martha Wells - the wizards have guns and teleporting technology and the plot thickens. Thoroughly enjoying this series.
• Earth Logic by Laurie J. Marks - Interesting second in the series, ruminating on duty and timing and all sorts of things.
• How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler - wowzers this was good. Definitely more of a comedy/funny book until the very end where shit gets real.
• Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear - really liked this, a little heavy on debating the philosophy of governance in space for my tastes but hey, whatever works. It got really action packed about halfway through and much better
• Daughter of the Merciful Deep by Leslye Penelope - real Jim Crow south shit but then magic. More YA style but sufficiently emotionally resonant to be excellent.
• Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold - really enjoyed this, didn't understand the science parts but really good.
• Water Logic by Laurie J. Marks - third in the series, liked this one a lot, time travel!
• Amateur by Thomas Page McBee - non fiction for once, a little memoir? story? about how a transman navigated boxing gyms and masculinity
• Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold - Enemies to married on both sides of a galactic war, delightful. Plus a little bit of cultural differences and some espionage
• Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee - what an incredible world they've built! Undead generals, space battles, siege on a space fortress/planet, still can't tell
• Air Logic by Laurie J. Marks - excellent final book to the series and a good wrap up to everything that happened.
• No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull - I don't quite understand what the point of the book was, but I did enjoy it. A series of unconnected people and someone else in the room.
• The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan - holy shit this was excellent. A really interestingly built world and really enjoyable writing. I loved the characters and can't wait for the sequel

DNF

• The Battle Drum by Saara El-Arifi - I finally got too annoyed at this series to keep reading. I found the setup for the love triangle annoying because I can see it coming a mile away, and like, having a bi protag and one of the love interests a woman is different but it was too annoying. Plus I found the protag irritating as hell.