I’m on book 12 of The Wheel of Time, The Gathering Storm. So far not seeing the changes of Brandon Sanderson’s writing in how this book is written but I am still enjoying it. Maybe his writing is more apparent in the later parts of this book. Either way, the ending of 11 got me really excited for what is to come in the final parts of this epic story.

桃花扇 (Táo Huā Shàn / “The Peach Blossom Fan”)

Though this particular translator chose to render the title as Peach Blooms Painted with Blood, the literal and most common translation is the one I gave. It’s effectively the life’s work of 孔尚任 (Kǒng Shàngrèn), a 64th generation direct descendent of 孔夫子 (Kǒng Fūzǐ or Confucius). Writing it was a 20-year effort ending with its first performance in 1699 to widespread acclaim. It is considered a peak of Chinese historical drama and has been transformed and reinterpreted in many forms and many ways across its over-three century history.

The plot revolves around the romance between a scholar and a courtesan in the face of competition from corrupt officials atop a backdrop of the decline and fall of the Ming Dynasty. It features historical figures prominently with a rather pointed “J’accuse” at several of them for causing and/or hastening the decline.

This being a Chinese romantic drama, one of the two traditional ends befalls the lead characters: the courtesan becomes a nun, and the scholar a monk. (The other traditional end is that the leads die.)

Finished Crossbows, an excellent tome on the history and construction of crossbows (and as a bonus, siege engines). A friend suggested it during a conversation about D&D.

Also Witch King by Martha Wells. Fantasy. Very different from the Murderbot diaries. Very good.

Finished The Alchemist’s Secret by Clare Marchant. Now I’m reading Ask For Andrea by Noelle Ihli.

Through 4 of the 8 released Dungeon Crawler Carl books - they’re so fun

Rereading The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. It’s one of the longest series I’ve read but the payoff is oh so worth it. Even though the last 3 books had to be finished by another author after Jordan’s death, Brandon Sanderson managed to keep up quality while not trying to mimic Jordan’s style and that eventually got me into Sanderson’s other books.

Slow rolling my way through the latest Dungeon Crawler Carl. I’ve also got Burden To Bear from Gregory Amato to finish up, but it isn’t really grabbing me.

Living my life by Emma Goldman her autobiography basically and it is a good look at her life and thinking and in a broader way the state of radical politics in America especially in immigrant communities in late 1800’s early 1900’s would definitely recommend it.

I finally got around to the Psy Corps books in the Babylon 5 universe. Interesting that we only discovered teeps in humans because university students were told to find something absurd, study it clinically, and write a paper on it because you all need to learn how to write scientific papers.

The other day I finished The Two Towers, it was great. Right after that I binged all of Skin Game (Dresden Files 15) in one day which has been my favourite in the series since the first time I read it.

Now I’m just cleaning up a couple of random things I’ve had on the backburner, then it’s Return of the King, Peace Talks and Battle Ground as soon as possible so that I can get to Twelve Months.

Other than that, I’ve picked up my The Wise Man’s Fear audiobook again now that I’m working out regularly again because it was my gym noise back in… wow late 2024. Time flies.

Apparently Michael G Manning’s latest book came out a couple of weeks ago too, but I haven’t had any luck finding it for some reason, no idea what’s happening there 🤷‍♂️

Just finished ‘Children Of Strife’ the fourth book in the ‘Children Of Time’ series by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

One one hand, he has a trope he keeps going back to, on the other he makes it work pretty well.

I’d suggest starting with the first book, and reading the whole series.

Classic.

Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett.

This book created the whole noir genre. The plots been used and reused dozens of times, but it’s good to go back to where it all started.

A tough private detective is dispatched to a corrupt mining city. It’s full of warring gangs and our hero is going to clean it up, no matter how many murders it takes.

Reading Dracula through Dracula Daily

An Isaac Asimov collection called “The Wonderful Worlds of Science Fiction - Intergalactic Empires I”

It covers some stories about Empires, that he quantifies as having a “rational historical backround” and says his Foundation series is the first to do so in 1942.

One of the stories is his own, and is Foundation adjacent, just takes place in his universe, it’s titled “Blind Alley”

Linky

After this it’s the next Star Wars book which is “Children of the Jedi”

I finished Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams. As bad as I thought Facebook was, it was actually worse. It was an awful but fascinating read.

The one thing that stood out to me was how the author seemingly failed to grasp that she is just as bad as all these other people at Facebook she was writing about. There was zero self reflection or admission of her massive part in making Facebook what it is today (she was Director of Global Public Policy). From the way the book is written, if she was called out on her part in Facebook’s rise I would expect a Nuremberg defence.

I’m on The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey. This is my 6th Pern book. It’s not my favorite, but overall I am still greatly enjoying the world. The main character is in an interesting predicament and so far I’ve found the way he navigates it to be relatable. His characterization also feels quite realistic for an 18 year old brought up in his circumstances.