The books of 2023

1. Mysterium - Robert Charles Wilson

Gnosticism is toxic meme bomb, planted in the human psyche. The very idea of dualism and and evil world, it always points down into darkness. This was a quite intriguing parallel world and contrafactual history. At the same time chilling and terrifying, with a world with that dark meme at the heart of all culture. I felt there was one thing I felt was stereotypical, and that was the self reliant man. The classic sf trope of the American hero. Apart from that lapse into sloppiness, Wilson did a good job. Of course, the idea of a Big Dumb Object that transports a city into a parallel universe where the American hero tries to liberate his city is kind of silly. But, it was entertaining enough.

2. Shrapnel #10 - Philip A. Lee ed.

I've often said that game fiction is mostly just drek, best avoided. Sometimes, though, it can give you a feel for how things work in a world, and even though it has little literary value, it can still be worth reading. This new anthology series of Battetech fiction was thus something I approached with some apprehension. But, it actually proved to be better written than I feared. Of course, it's military sf, with big stompy robots, and if that feels a bit much after a few short stories, maybe this is a better option than a full novel? I bought a few more volumes, and it will probably be decent entertainment.

3-6. Legend of Fei vol 1-4 - Priest

Wow, that was quite a story! This was probably one of the better wuxia stories I've read. There were not a zoo of weird and wonderous characters like in a novel by Gu Long, but they were charming and interesting enough. As the author let long stretch of time pass between sections of the book, interesting developments could take place, and allowed for the plot to develop as well. The fighting was well decribed, and clearly in the more fantastic vein, with inner power and qi thrown about shattering walls around the fighters. Still, even I who don't like the more fantastic elements of xianxia felt it was not silly. I think the fact that the main character still had all those self doubts, and always had to rely as much on her wit as her martial skill, made it feel believable in some weird way. I also liked to read a story written by a woman. While she kept enough of the genre tropes we all love, it had some fresh take on things, and we really don't need more than one Gu Long with his hard drinking heroes telling us how women are. Finally, I liked the love story. Just like in Crane Startles Kunlun it felt like it added to the martial mayhem. I wish I could read more like this!

7. A Memory Called Empire - Arkady Martine

Is space opera necessesarily operatic? Most often it is not. Actually, it was not originally opera as we think of it at all. But here we have something that does have some of those elements, of heightened hypertension and high drama in a contained time and space. What are you prepared to go to stay human? What of what you consider yourself are you prepared to loose? What does it mean to love The Other? I liked this book about court intrigue and conspiracies. The setting felt big, ancient and laden down with traditions. It felt like how I expect people sometimes feel about Dune. Also, I liked the characters and how they acted in a few very tense and dramatic hours and days. There's also something about the title that gets to me. Maybe it's because how the Teixcalaani use poetry and allusion heavy words and phrases that felt, pregnant with meaning?

8. A Desolation Called Peace - Arkady Martine

The step up after that first book, what could that be? Interstellar war, maybe? This must be one of the first times I've read a book with so much at stake, and the main text of the book is about how the characters stand, look and talk on the bridge of the flagship instead of detailed description of the war happening out there in the dark. I liked the interesting parallels about collectivity and individualism, between aliens who are also humans, and aliens that are very alien. Even the love story was in the end about someone from the individualistic society looking for twosomeness, while the lover from the society with collective memories looking for solitude, even though they had both accepted their feelings for each other. Tight plotting, and some quite weird tech and weird aliens. If this is the new, new space opera I think I like where we're heading!

9. Ghoul - Brian Keene

Horror is supposed to not be nice, right? Still, it felt like a punch in the gut, when in the epilogue you realized Barry had not escaped the town, had not escaped his heritage and was now an abusive father just like his old man. But, Keene is a good writer and it was a good read. I felt for the kids, and felt with the kids. Keene made you think of childhood and its innocence, and I could imagine the three boys and how they talked and how they felt. It took a while to finish it, which might be a bit strange considering it's a short book. But, I think I had to digest the story in each chunk I read. I felt emotion, and in some way it was not really what I expected. Maybe I need to read stories by this Brian Keene fellow.

10. The Crocodile Princess - Robyn Paterson

There where a few moments of cringe in this novel, which I think an editor might have caught. That being said, for a self published novel, it could have been far worse. The cover was a big ugly, but that was about it. It had lot of the wuxia tropes, of love triangles that's hard to square, detailed fights, crossdressing and factions fighting between each others. With the smartass main character, it did feel a bit Gu Long inspired. A mysterious box and kidnappings, and a trio of villains tracking down the main character and the woman he is trying to protect, sounds familiar, eh? There were also fights in tea houses and people with exotic weapons and notable physionomics. It ticked all the boxes.

11-16. The Collected Omaha The Cat Dancer - Kate Worley & Reed Waller

I would never have found out about this comic if it had not been mentioned as one that the young comic collector in the Brian Keene novel Ghoul fancied. But, as I was curious I tracked it down, and found that it was very much a soap opera story, with relationships, work issues, political and societal issues. Also, it was populated by anothropomorphic animals, and when real people would do so, they had sex. Odd one this. But, I kind of liked it! The characters were funny, believable and I cared for their lives. That's good writing. I had never even looked at the furries thing, and I am not that keen on "funny animals" comics. But, this one worked, and the art is really good.

17. Biggles in the jungle - W.E. Johns

My wife found this one for free, and remembered how I had talked about reading these as a kid, and loving it. I kind of feared it would be terribly racist, wooden characters and extremely cringe worthy. It turned out that short as it was, it's written for kids after all, it was endurable. Yes, the characters are wooden and it feels very old with all the smoking and the extremely colonialistic world view. But, it's a decently told adventure yarn and Johns knows how to pace it, so that even though they are flying a lot back and forth, it's only mentioned in passing when not adding to the plot. It could have been very much worse. I wont read another one soon, though.

18. Shrapnel #11 - Philip A. Lee ed.

The storytelling is still decent, and I was keen to read the follow up part of Tom Leveen's story, so I bought another issue of Shrapnel. There were a few quite good and entertaining stories about future war in this issue, and I think the game material is quite good as well. It feels like I could almost make a shot of submitting something myself. As long as I find big stompy robots entertaining, I might read another Shrapnel or two.

19. Tales of Talislanta - Stephan Michael Sechi ed.

I had missed this one in my collection, and was quite keen to get it. while it was neat, it was shorter and less interesting than I had hoped. But, fiction is a great way to get the experience of a world, and SMS' own stories were of course extra interesting. It quite clearly was inspired to a large extent by Jack Vance, which is something SMS has always acknowledged. I did like those bits, with the rascals and the rogues. I have been thinking a bit lately about the less palatable bits of Talislanta, and they did not make that much of an appearance here, except the slave trade. I've not really reached a conclusion about my feelings there, but I expect the new edition of the game to bring that back. Anyway. Decent enough fiction, and fun to have read it.

20. Inside Out - Nick Mason

Maybe the greatest rock band ever, and this is their story, from the inside. As I have read quite a bit on the band, nothing much was all new, but there were lot of small incidents and observations that I enjoyed a lot. Nick is a good writer, an injects dry humour and wit with some well chosen phrases. What the story lack, is a bit of engagement and personal touch. While he does confess to some personal foibles, and sadly admits to some less than smooth social graces by him and the rest of the band, it's surprisingly dry. Maybe the same stiff upper lip upbringing that caused them so much troubles talking to each other about their feelings is once again to blame? There are more than a few times you're left shaking you head and chuckling when you read about how hard they worked to avoid taking on their issues. It's funny and tragic at the same time, and you get a feeling of emotionally immature individuals. Maybe the music was the way they could express themselves? I have gotten a better appreciation for some of their older music, and I now see better how they all fit totgether.

21. Into the Drowning Deep - Mira Grant

I don't think I will remember this book a few years down the line. It was fun, and thrilling suspense but not great literature. I did admire the way the author managed to divulge how there was a new threat coming, and to drop foreshadowing pills that could sow the seeds of anticipation for further dread. That was very well done. So, it was a page turner that had me past 85 pages in the first sitting. That being said, this was basically Aliens, but out in the Pacific Ocean and the threat coming from the deeps. Squared jawed heroes, killing galore and a fascinating monster. I didn't find the characters all that engaging, and had to think twice in order to keep them apart. Fun, and forgettable.

22. Bourbon & American Whiskey - Örjan Westerlund

Some history, some facts on the manufacturing, some cocktails and taste notes. Nothing too deep, but a good overview and a handy glossary.

23. The Hollow Places - T. Kingfisher

I listened to a podcast and found out that Ursula Vernon also wrote horror, and decided I should see if her books where at my local library. They were. So, I often find horror at novel length often is more like dark fantasy than horror, as it has to dig into the weird more than the horrific, to extend into novel length. This books kind of validates that idea. The latter part was creepy, and quite intense. Before that it was more cosy weird, although with a dark tint. Anyway, I did find it an easy read, and thus quite enjoyable. Woman finds hole to other world, nasty stuff hunts her, "normal" weird comes into contact with otherworldly weird and horror ensues.

24. Xingyi Martial Theory - Daniel Schultz

Time to re-read this one. Good solid foundation for xingyi practice and I felt I needed to fill what I do with some ideas. Still good.

25. Sandman - The Dream Hunters - Neil Gaiman & Yoshitaka Amano & P. Craig Russell

I had never read this Sandman story before, but now when I got going reading that boxed set I started with the new story. It's an intriguing idea to have a story illustrated by two artists, one as an ilustrated short story, and the other as a classic comic format. The fake backstory with an old Japanese folk tale is hysterical, and fun, but it does read a bit like one. I think Gaiman is good at adapting that form, and after all, much of his stories have that fairy tale quality to them. I wasn't sure I understood all that happened in the first reading of it. Was it the classic comic form that did it for me? Or was it just the fact I read it a second time? It was a good story about love and compassion. I liked it.

26. Possession - A.S. Byatt

I've been thinking a long time about reading this book, but apart from that many people who have read it gushed about it, I never had the hook. It was awarded the Booker prize, so you would expect it to be quite solid, right? It turns out it is a novel of a certain density. The parallel themes of couples and their more or less evolved romances is neat enough, but it's probably the way the novel uses different narrative techniques that won it its fame. You read about people reading letters, and then you get to read those same letters. It's like Byatt is playing with the form, and the role of the readers in the experience of creating the narrative. What maybe did not work so well on me was the poetry. I have a hard time reading much English poetry for some reason, and the romantic poetry of the 1800 really doesn't work for me. Still, it's quite impressive the author has managed to use all these different voices quite successfully. In the end, I was engaged, even though it wasn't a breezy read. I thought the "mystery" as such was well done, and the English flavour very clearly there. Was it as great as some made it out to be? Well, I wasn't amazed. It was good. Yeah, good.

27. Nelson's Blood - James Pack

The history of naval rum, that ought to be interesting, right? Sadly it's not very engagingly written, and way too many details of who did what and all navy officers are described as brave, righteous and corageous leaders who care for their crews. It is written by a former navy officer, go figure. Apart from that, it does talk in great detail about how the rum was distributed, and how the people in charge related to it. A missed opportunity to make a more entertaining book.

28. Mr. Breakfast - Jonathan Carroll

I listened to an episode of The Good Friends of Jackson Elias, and Scott talked so fondly of the books by Jonathan Carroll I decided to check them out. Even though Scott thought Mr. Breakfast might not be a good first book, I took to it quite fast. It was weird, fascinating, and surprisingly thoughtful. A story about a tattoo that makes it possible to visit your other possible selves, and make those histories the one you lived does sound weird. But, it was also a very relateable thought experiment. I also think the way the characters in the book pondered life and how to be content and learn to do the best of whatever happens to you was actually quite well thought out. It was a very human book, for all its surreal setup. I grew to really like some of the characters in the book. In all it was a neat puzzle of a book as well, with a structure that mirrored the parallelism of the multiple lives. That the author managed to tie it all together the way he did was both satisfying, and impressive.

29. Hellblazer:The Fear Machine - Jamie Delano/Mark Buckingham/Richard Piers Rayner/Mike Hoffman/Alfredo Alcala

It was a long time since I read any comics, and a very long time since I read any Hellblazer. For some reason I'm not even sure I ever finished reading this trade, or if I did, it was a long time ago and I forgot about it. It was less moody than I remember it, and the witty John Constantine was more annoying and dumb than funny. But, they story was intriguing (seems to be a trend lately) and pretty gruesome. It was horror, no doubt about it. I was captivating enough for me considering buying another trade, actually. This story was less noir magic, and more full on neo pagan magic rituals with a slightly rambling overdub. That was probably what threw me most about this book. That dude JC really seems to be out of it sometimes.

30. The Silver Spike - Glenn Cook

20 years later, I re-read this book. It's still very muddy and gritty. Even though it's about ancient evil sorcerors, the viewpoint is desperate men living through hard times. Cook weaves a pretty good suspense story, and you do feel anything could go south any second. The parts of the story set in Oar is war at its most terrible, with illness starvation and pain. It's all bad people doing bad stuff, but you still get the feeling they are all people, miserable and stupid as they are. As it's all really a heist story, I guess it's fitting that it ends badly for most people involved. I did not remember Raven being a bad person, but he really comes across as a sad piece, especially when he dies in the end, holding the Spike. I had a hard time putting it down, which does say something about the book.

31. Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits - Garth Ennis/Will Simpson

Another story line about John Constantine. This time he is fighting terminal lung cancer. There are some witticisms, and the monologues I noted in The Fear Machines. He is less dumb, but still quite self centred and not very nice. The plot with him selling his soul to multiple bidders, so they will have to keep him alive is clever and neat. I liked the experience of reading it more than the last one, but that one was more horror than this one. It had less of a sense of place than the last one.

32. Jade City - Fonda Lee

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. Somehow I think I was expecting more classic fantasy, with a setting some unspecified ancient times. Instead, it was a gangster story like the A Better Tomorrow stories. I was thinking multiple times when I read it that it was pulling me in, making me sympathize with people, and then showing their darker sides. In fact, the whole setup is kind of like that, with the worldbuilding itself. You find the jade cool, but also the society it creates repugnant. I did learn to like some characters, but found them to also be unsympathetic bastards. I guess that made them real. As a gangster thriller, it was all that and the characters where interesting, and learning what made them tick was fun to read. I guess it ws kind of unavoidable that in a story about a gangster war, you would have some unpleasantness and some people you learn to despise. But, even though it was a series, I felt it ended the first volume with closure. Maybe I will read on, if only to hopefully see that little shit Bero get what's coming to him. It was poignant to start and end the story with him.

33. Snowblade Vagabond - Long Chengfeng

While this was a pretty short novel, 170 pages, it packed a lot of intrigue. There were murders, poisons and people with double identities all over the place. A week or so later I can't really recall all that happened, but I think it was not that it was hard to grasp, or that I read it too fast. I think it was just a short entertaining romp without anything extra. While that is true, the characters where funny enough and the twists entertaining. You can clearly see how Long Chengfeng tries to write in the same style as Gu Long, as his trademark twisty plots and myriad of characters are there. But, there are more of the sect infighting and politicking, and in that case maybe a small inspiration from Jin Yong as well. I have two more stories to read from Long Chengfeng and I expect them to be entertaining.

34. Skälmarnas Furste - Samuel Shellabarger

Many years ago I read this book, and was fascinated both with the era of the Italian city states around the year 1500, and the witty and charming protagonist. I was a bit afraid of the suck fairy, but took a leap of faith and re-read it. It turns out it is still quite entertaining. It's clearly written to be a good adventure sory, and the fact it was filmed after only a year shows it was produced in the context of a wider entertainment industry by a renowed craftsman. I think the fortunes of our leading man tend to be a bit too good to be true more than once, but it is still a joy to read how both messer Orsini and his trusty liutenant Mario outwit and out talk their opponents. It's colourful adventure, and Andrea Orsini actually come across as a better person through his adventures. He show that a good heart and virtue does mean more than birthright, and he even improve upon his rather instrumental view of women. It was fun, even in re-reading.

35. The Tao of Wing Chun - Danny Xuan & John Little

As I started my practice, I felt I needed some good footing and to know some of the theory behind the art. Thankfully, my Sigu Xuan had written a book! He tackle the mythology around the origins with a very clear approach, he lays out the foundation principles very clearly and step by step in each chapter takes on Structure, Force, Speed and Sensitivity. This is no instruction manual, but when he walks you through one exercise step by step and clarify which part of the arm has to travel in a certain diretion and with how much force, you realize he has thought a lot about these things. I did come away enlightened. Now we'll see if I can make it happen in practise as well.

36. Vei vol 1 & vol 2 - Sara Bergmark Elfgren & Karl Johnsson

How many times can you do a story "inspired by" nordic myth before it becomes a bit trite? Sometime you need to make something new. In this case, I think the author has done it! The main character is a human, but serving the jotun of Jotunheim, and the Aesir is not very nice at all. Well, the latter we have seen before, I guess. But, this take was new, and interesting. When the situation finally reach that peak of intensity you have learned to despise all gods and only wish for them all to bite the dust. I guess I have read this before, but Wagner's take on Ragnarök is focusing on Odin, and here we have the humans in focus. It's bitter and sweet, it's action packed and filled with some emotions that bleed out of the page. I liked the art a lot, as it was expressive, but clear. The close ups of people had a sense of the fluid magic of fantasy, but also the landscape views felt properly fantastic. It was very much a story about loss, and change. I liked it.