The books of 2022

1. Hawk - Steven Brust

Time to re-read the chronologically last Vlad Taltosh book, as there are new ones coming! Well, not exactly soon. I felt like revisting Vlad anyway, and I had read this book as an example of Vlad not being a reliable narrator. I must confess I did not catch where he was purposefully hiding stuff in this story. There was that time Daymar noiced that he had a "wall in his head", but I think has actually been explained in one of the books, has it not? Anyway, I did not catch that, but had a good time reading a fun story about a convoluted plot by Vlad to get the heat off him rom the Jhereg, and he succeeded by getting the Left Hand wanting to off him instead. As he had set it up that the Jhereg council would go down if he was killed, you would imagine that those guys would like to keep him alive and somewhat protected from the Left Hand, to save their own skin. But, maybe it does not work that way? I still wonder whether he will reach some kind of resolution with Cawti before the end. I think I would like that, unlikely as it is.

2. Deep In the Darkness - Michael Laimo

I felt like reading horror, and took down this volume that had sat there on the shelf for ages. The text is set with a lot of space, and it's not a thick book so it looks like an easy read. But, I found my mind wandering as I read it. I unvolumtarily sped up my reading, and found myself looking at a paragraph ahead with really grasping what had happened before. In the end I thumbed to the end and tried to figure out what has going to happen, even though I had read most of the book already. I think there are two problems with this book. The first is that the protagonist is a self centred asshole. He thinks of himself first, and is very condescending towards his wife's needs, and when their relationship deteriorates he at no time questions his own behaviour. I found him less than likeable. The second thing is something about how it's written. I read a paragraph and suddenly my eyes glaze over. I don't know exactly what is is, but something is boring with this book. I did not finish it.

3. The Visitors - Clifford D. Simak

This Simak book I first saw as a kid at my local library, but for some reason never read. Now I can tell the back cover text was basically summarizing the whole novel! I decided to buy a bunch of Simak books I have not read, and this was the first one to be read. It starts off with a character mouthing off about "lazy redskins", and then getting killed. It becomes clear pretty quickly that this book is a first contact story, but it is as much a commentary about the european colonizers and how their interaction with the first nations peoples turned out. You can probably find all kinds of issues with it, if you dug into the political meat of it all. But, it comes across as portraying the capitalistic and greedy western society as brittle in contact with a superior intelligence. The military complex gets portrayed in a way that makes it clear Simak was no friend of the military mindset. He also very clearly portray people in his usual warm and sympathetic way. The system might be corrupt, but he did believe in decency of human beings and kindness across the vast gulfs of space. Sometimes, that's what you need to read.

4. Sovande Jättar [Sleeping Giants] - Sylvain Neuvel

This looked like one of those books that tries to be like a blockbuster movie with lots of special effects, explosions and a break neck pace. It does manage to be fairly suspenseful with much action at all! Almost all of it are interviews and written from the perspective of a unnamed conspirator who brings together lot of people to investigate a Big Dumb Object(TM), and thus it's never the action itself, but someone retelling what happened. Oddly, it works and is quite engaging. The BDO is a humanoid robot and of clearly extraterrestial origin, and clearly a weapon. I found the characers fun and engaging, even though a discerning reader probably could find faults with the way they are portrayed. They are colourful and fun. Even though it is a series, it is quite self contained. The epilogue is very cool, though. It opens up the story with a real bombshell. Rose Franklin, four years younger, shows up again. What!

5. Iain M. Banks - Paul Kincaid

A book length study of the works of Iain M. Banks, who could resist that? I learned a lot of the themes and techniques used by Banks over his whole career, and learned which books of his I really don't need to read! He clearly developed as a writer, and some things I think he did best the first time, and from now on I think I will regard Look to Windward as the last Culture novel, like it was first intended. I also learned that some of the devices he used repeatedly, like rape, is not something I care for and I will just don't bother reading books that treat that as a plot device. I find the deepy repulsive. Kincaid mentions it being used "from Complicity to Surface Detail", so maybe I'll just ignore those books. The idea that Banks repeatedly worked with the theme of divided people is interesting. He does seem to like that idea of some people being physically or mentally divided and parallels of each other. His recurring motif of castles is also intriguing. I have decided to make sure to read Transition as that seems to be the closest he ever came to writing something like The Bridge which I think might be my favourite of his. He was an interesting writer in many ways. He was well read, funny and brutally vicious in equal amounts when writing characters and I think his political mainline about individual freedoms paired with humans needing togetherness and creating their own meaning sit well with me.

6. Excession - Iain M. Banks

This books is what no space opera should be, dull. I re-read it because of the book I just read by Paul Kincaid. When Paul wrote about it, it sounded like Banks very perticular structure of his novels was something worthy of revisting. Now, I must say it might be interestingly structured, but paced it is not. It's extremely glacial, and people shuffle around in the plot and in the end their meanderings turn out to mean nothing. The Excession is the point of the novel, but it's just there as a catalyst for AI to freak out, and actually they do very little. I read almost to the end of the novel and the big ship that was mysteriously at the centre of things still hadn't gotten near the Excession. Also, what's this with a serious douche as one of the centre piece characters? Nagging a woman until she relents and have sex with him and then he wanders off? Fuck that. I gave up on this one.

7. Pierced Heart - Robin D. Laws

Having played OTE again, both as a player and a GM I wanted to familirize myself with the setting again, and what better way than to read some fiction by the main author? It's always a probem with a weird setting, how do you make it work as normality? I think Laws makes it well clear by focusing on just a few of the powers and conspiracies, and painting the rest with either a wide brush or not at all. I tink this will inform my gaming in OTE. Also, as far as fiction goes, this book works well enough. The characters are believable enough and the plotting is convoluted enough to fit in a setting as drenched as conpiracy, but understandable. It's not a great read, but fun enough.

8. Shakespeare sagor - Leon Garfield

Shakespeare's plays retold in prose form, for kids, must be the best way to quickly get a grasp of those plays you feel you aught to know about, right? The Tempest and Twelfth Night were the ones I wanted to read. The latter read like it could have some interesting qualities, while the former was mosty confusing. I also tried to read The Merchant of Venice, but the anti-semitic qualties was grating, and I could not finish it. Frankly, I wonder why they bothered with that one and The Taming of the Shrew? The volume also contained some plays I already know quite well and those I skipped.

9. And a Bottle of Rum - Wayne Curtis

A history of the Americas through the lens of rum, nothing less. I enjoyed it a lot and as expected learned a lot of rum, but also about modern American history. Rum is a very interesting spirit, as it's such a broad church. I think Curtis was a bit dismissive of bourbon as too regulated to be interesting, but I can see why he would consider the wild and unregulated field of sugar cane derviatives wild and exciting. Maybe I have gotten some insights into my own mixology from this.

10. Legend of Lu Xiaofeng - Gu Long

A mystery wuxia, so this was not non-stop action. But, neither is it Sherlock Holmes in China. As so often when Gu Long is involved, the plotting is involved. Very involved. If I re-read this one, I will make a list of all the characters, as I realized in the end that I had lost track of who was who! Gu Long as always interjecs his comments about women, drink and life and I find I enjoy it. There were as much a story about friendship and life as the mystery in some chapters. I must definitely read another book in the Lu Xiaofeng series, as this was a bit different.

11. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

The greatest novel of the jazz age? It's definitely one of the best known ones. I read it ages back, and apart from liking it, no memory remains. It's a sad book, and at the same time a celebration of life and to grasp and enjoy what you have, and not be bothered about the future, and not mired in the past. It's also a story about shallow people, about glitz and style but where friendships end as the money stops flowing. Apart from some racist comments, and some aspects of how jewish people are protrayed, it feels quite timeless. Gatsby is a mystery, and everyone loves him as long as he is a rich enigma, but it's really the other midwestern boy that even though he claims to despise him that treats him like a human being. Gatsby might have been crooked and rich, but Daisy and her uncouth husband are rich and heartless. Bittersweet and sadness is the feelings in the end of a beautifully written piece.

12. The Golden Globe - John Varley

Is this novel the authors excuse to show off all his love of Hollywood trivia, old science fiction and Shakespearian theatre? Probably. Still, it's a somewhat funny romp of a scoundrel travelling through the solar system, hunted by both his past and people. In actuallity, it's not that much that happens, except he story that develops in long flashbacks. But, in total it's entertaining. I think the funny parts where funnier the firsttime I read it, but Sparky is a lovable scoundrel and the off hand remarks about pre-Invasion earth is till worth a chuckle or two.

13. Berserker - Fred Saberhagen

This is probably one of the classics, and I had not read it. As it was short, and composed of sort stories I took it on. It felt a bit old. It's old school sf with not much in place of character development, even though some of them are reocurring throughout the stories of this collection. The basic idea, murderous machines let loose in the universe to kill all living life, and humans being the only ones violet enough to stop them is strained, but for the length of one book I can agree to it. Some stories are neat twists on how to fight overwhelming odds, others are more personal, and some are even turning the theme on it's head by a berserker machine being convinced to protect life. I think it was a decent diversion, but I can't for the life of me understand why he wrote multiple novels, and more short stories than this volume. The idea is not that interesting, and his storytelling craft don't elevate it enough. Done.

14. The Embroidery Bandit (Stories of Lu Xiofeng Book 2) - Gu Long

In this, the second Lu Xiofeng mystery, the plotting is not as colvoluted as the first one. It being a mystery, and it being a Gu Long book, that still mean it's not exactly simple. I really liked the mystery, though. It was well thought out, and I liked the characters. I was a bit sad when the his sweetheart was killed by the bandit, but there had to be killings, right? There was even some quite cool fights, which I imagine would even look impressive on the big screen, as they where not the lightning fast one strikes Gu Long is so known for. All in all, a very enjoyable read. I will read more in this series, but now I will probably interject some other wuxia before that.

15. Extas i folkhemmet - Leonidas Aretakis

As usual when the subject is the history of drugs, and especially hallucinogenics, it's a muddled mess. CIA is involved, big pharma is involved and just plain hysterics. I learned a few new things, though. The first was how open Sweden was until the early seventies. The artists and the bohemians loved new drugs, that's not news, but even doctors and academics seemed to have a healthy open mindedness about it all. The second thing was how disastrous an influence Timothy Learer has had on the history of psychadelics. If he had kept his big mouth shut, and had some morals about how to do scientific studies maybe some of the hysterics wouldn't have gotten so much fuel for their fires. The third thing is how the hot mess that is the political structure of the US has played into things, even here in Sweden. CIA have been poking their fingers into so many pies, and the political establishment putting the lid on anything that could cause rebellion and uproar, while being in the pay of big business with all kinds of nefarious agendas. The only sure thing about LSD is that it's not toxic, and it's not a poison at all. What seems to scare people is that it and other halluciogenics makes people think new things, and no longer conform. Anyone who claims that it will lead to a new paradise of any sort, capitalistic or otherwise, is a moron.

16. A Closed and Common Orbit - Becky Chambers

Chambers contiue to write "being centred" stories. Even so, this was a page turner, and things did happen. Not all books about people and their relations are tense in that way. After the first Wayfarer book, I felt the emotional story of those characters, and the AI, was done. I'm happy now to say that there was more to the story. Who am I? What's my purpose? How do I live my life? Those are questions for humans and AI both, and was well developed in this book. Even though I knew in the alternate chapters that told Pepper's backstory that she would pull through, it was really tense a few times and I wondered how she would survive, even though she clearly did. I liked it a lot.

17. Bordertown Wanderer - Gu Long

This is a mystery novel, but also wuxia with headstrong swordsmen and fighting sects and clans. It goes like a pendelum between mystery and hard boiled wuxia. Not only that, it's also a romance between some unlikely persons. True to form, Gu Long populate the novel with a myriad of people, and in the end when the perpetrator is found, I had almost forgotten who he was! I liked the love stories, and I liked the morality tale of Ye Kai and how he had been told by Li Xunhuan that forgiveness is what he must learn to be his disciple and learn the mastery of the flying dagger. In the end, I think many novels by Gu Long are a bit long, and a bit convoluted. They almost work better as movies, where the core of the story form the spine of the novel. But, it was an entertaining read and I might keep reading about the Little Li Flying Dagger.

18. Living Like A Runaway: A Memoir - Lita Ford

I used to listen to Lita Ford, and not only was she a hot chick who played guitar, she did make some good music. But, for a long while I have not bothered to get her records on CD, and have not listened to my vinyls. When I learned she had made a new record, and written a book, I decided to dive into her music again. The record it not bad at all, but the book is a bit painful at times. I really don't understand why she lived that rock and roll life, as it really just sounds like misery from my vantage point! Little money, and living in a dump and blowing all money on drugs and cheap alcohol. Why? But, I am impressed by what she has managed to achieve in the music business. She is legendary, and for good reasons. The amount of douchebags she has encountered is amazing.

19. Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky

I'm not sure if this was a good book or not? Having read a decent chunk of it, I realized I really didn't care much for the main character. Actually, did I even know much about them? This was after I had read and gotten caught up in the page turner qualities of the plot. The fact that there are tense conflicts does make part of the book enjoyable, but then there are long stretches that actually is not really that good. Some are kind of just exposition to show how the worldbuilding turn out when you let generations pass and how the pre set conditions evolves. Finally I did keep reading as I wanted to know how the conflict would be resolved between the uplifted arachnids and the last fragments of humanity. Will I cherish this read? Probably not. Will I read more books buy this author? I'm not so sure I will.

20. Psalm for the Wild Built - Becky Chambers

Becky Chambers has started a new series, Monk and Robot, of which this story is the first. As it's quite short, it doesn't feel it develop that far, which perhaps is the thing I like least about it. Apart from that, it has much of the same quality of her other writings, like the focus on characters and how they live their lives, and how they figure out what it means to be them. I find the setting to be intriguing, and it has potential to be developed further. The big take away from this story is how the monk finds some peace of mind by meeting the robot and how the robot used hir own medicine for healing.

21. River of Stars - Guy Gavriel Kay

I still don't get why Kay writes historical novels with new names on characters and places. He calls them fantasy, but so far I've red two and they only contain small amount of folk lore and spirits, not exactly hight magic. Anyway. He can write, and this one was elegant, cool and languid. I kind of liked the short summaries he did sometimes of what happened to a character as they faded out of the main story. It took me a while to realize this was a story of the fall of the Sung dynasty, and of general Fei Yue. It's a strange feeling reading something that you know is all set, as he writes really close to history, but still engaging and sometimes even almost tense. You almost cries for stupid intrigues and moronic politics, but that's history. Much of it was suffering. Reading this was pleasant, though.

22. Ekvilibrium - Simon Kyaga & Jonas Mattson

The question have been posed for as long as there have been art. What is the correlation between the creative mind and the mind broken apart. Some have postulated the genius, and it has become entertwined into these conceptions of the closeness between being gifted and being unhinged. A very serious study, based on a massive amount of clinical data has finally showed that for some types of genetically disposed illnesses, being relationally close to the illness actually show a statistically larger amount of people working as creatives. In this book the authors like to suggest the key to creativity, and maybe genius, is to balance between the illness taking you apart, and the state where the disassociative qualities it has can give you ideas and drive you to see new possibilities. It's quite intriguing, and considering it is based on real data it opens up possibilities for treatment when needed. Interesting study.

23. Heartbroken Arrow - Liu Canyang

A wuxia novel that's short, with no side plots and strong focus? Indeed it is. It's a 1971 novel by a Taiwanese author, known for his iron and blood stories. It's focused on characters, and it's mostly dialog. His style was known for being gritty and not very glamourous. I found it quite entertaining, but the fights where very fuzzy and at the same time well described. It was not by blow like Jin Yong, and not the explosive one strike kills of Gu Long. I imagine it would take a lot of wire work to film. In essence, this was a revenge story from prison to kiss under the moonlight. Biggest thing about this one was it was a new author, and thus the opportunity to try something new. I think that maybe some more meat on the bones would be nice, but I would read another, given the chance.

24. Prayer for the Crown Shy- Becky Chambers

The last Monk and Robot book was charming, but felt a bit flat. It was not flat compared to most books, but maybe not as emotionally charged as some of Chambers earlier books. Also, it was very short. Now she has written another chapter in the story about Dex and Mosscap, and it felt a bit meatier. Maybe it was because the setting and the characters were already established, and now she could get into the philosophical and ontological questions a bit more as Mosscap makes Dex question hir ideas about the world, and their place in it. Also, it was at times hilariously funny. I liked it, and thought it was well worth my time, and some of the insights about living in the now, and accepting oneself isn't too bad to remember.

25. Three Kingdoms- Luo Guanzhong

So, another of the Big Novels finished. There where a lot of characters in this one. I must confess when the armies where drewn up I often just skipped the lists of who was made general of whatever army. While repetitive, it did contain quite a few amusing stories and events. Kongming's series of battles where he set his captive enemy loose seven times was one of those, and also Cao Cao's smart politicking, and playing people's loyalties like Lord Guan for example. Actually, those two are some of my favourites. I did find Liu Bei a bit hard to like, as he is so stuck up on legitimacy and vacillating in his commands as an emperor. Cao Cao clearly was the more capable emperor of those two. Chinese history is really full of characters that ruin things because of petty power plays, and here they play out writ large, and you get to grind your teeth and detest their actions. But, sadly such is the way of power and politics. I think I can see why this is a classic, as it exposes those weaknesses of people, while also putting forth people who work for the greater good, and with goodwill and maneuvering succeed. But, I am happy it is over. It was a long one.

26. The Sword of Happenstance - Steven Brust & Skyler White

So this was a fairy tale, which means there are kings, dragons, swords, princessess and magic swords. There are also a barber's son who is the unknown heir, Ayre, and a scullery maid called Wut. Yes, it's a silly fairy tale. It's also so fully packed with puns and wordplay that if you are not a native English speaker, some will fly by unnoticed. But, what really caught me is the central conceit that reality is what you make it. It's both the source of magic in the setting and a highly confusing element which makes charaters change during the novel. You can become what you feel is the real you, for real. I'm not sure I really understood what happened in the end, due to that. There is a fundamental question beneath the fun and games. How do we create a society for all? Maybe it needs re-reading to make sense of it all.

27. The Grey King - Susan Cooper

This was very moody book. I felt it had a great atmosphere, and I liked how much celtic mythic reverberated throught it all. Now the series took on the athurian qualities for real as well. This was the book that made me want to learn cymric, after all! While the plotting is a bit "wander around and the plot happens to you", it can be forgiven for a story that is aimed at children after all. It took me many long years to finally read it again.

28. Silver On the Tree - Susan Cooper

As the final book in the series, you might expect it to kind of be a crescendo of all that has come before. In fact it is actually slogging along in a very measured pace some of the chapters. The section when Will and Bran travelled the Lost Land was very languid and described in flowery prose. Had it not been for some monsters and weird magic it would almost have been boring. I also felt the end with all the Old Ones on a train felt a bit jarring. The emotional centre of the book lies of course with John Rowlands and Bran Davies, that get to choose if they will remember their experiences of adventure, but also of loss and longing. I kind of felt it robbed their hrad choice of some of its impact when in the end Merriman made the rest of the children forget everything as well! I am a slight bit disappointed, but I guess having finally read it again, some thirty years later or so, I couldn't possibly have been totally satisfied.