In 2025 I read 168 books (most novel-length, a few separate novellas
and short stories).
Books that particularly stood out:
- T. Kingfisher, The Hollow Places
- Katherine Addison, The Tomb of Dragons
- Ada Hoffmann, Resurrections (short stories and poetry)
- Olivia Atwater, Small Miracles
- Stephanie Burgis, Wooing the Witch Queen
- Kate Johnson, Hex Appeal
I haven't read any of 2025's Hugo nominees except for Wiswell's
Someone You Can Build a Nest In, somethhing of a disappointment, and
apart from the Kingfisher I don't plan to.
I am continuing with my chronological reads of everything by Martha
Wells and T. Kingfisher, and still enjoying them, though I seem to
have slowed down rather (five of each this year rather than seven and
six respectively in 2024). A little more non-fiction: obscure
programming languages, Patrick Stewart's autobiography, the death of
Pluto and odd aircraft incidents.
Books I didn't finish, which therefore didn't get individual reviews:
Bloodlust Blues, Luanne Bennett (2024): heroine with mysterious
magical powers and an obvious destined One True Love, vampires,
werewolves, the small town that has all the supernatural folks in it,
witches who somehow aren't human but rather another magical race—Dead
to the World also has all these standard urban fantasy tropes and yet
I found that light and breezy and fun. This one isn't, and all I can
think is that the writing fails to elevate it above the commonplace in
the way that worked for the other book.
Tattered Huntress, Helen Harper (2024): heroine with mysterious
magical powers and an obvious destined One True Love, vampires,
trolls, and let's all gallivant off treasure-hunting. Heroine is
working as a delivery driver, and when at their first meeting Hero
spots the signs of her (magical, but controlled) drug addiction his
immediate response is to get her sacked. Yup, he'll be a keeper. Also
she's somehow supporting an expensive drug habit (and Edinburgh rent)
on a low-paid job. I don't care about these people, even if there is a
welcome portrayal of Scotland written by someone who actually lives
there.
Money Hungry, Joseph Browning and Suzi Yee (2021): It's Occult
Secret Service, but with a lead agent who seems to be a blend of John
Sandford's Lucas
Davenport—he
keeps a Porsche 911 for the four mile urban drive to work!—and Dennis
Wheatley's Gregory Sallust, a big strong man who is always right and
barely manages to hide his contempt for mere mortals. All the clichés
of unaccountable secret agencies, rough men doing terrible things so
that the sheep can sleep safely at night, but also appallingly
written. (Do not use words if you don't know what they mean. Check the
spelling, including that you've spelled names consistently.) Every few
pages there's a new infelicity of writing that kills any momentum I
might have built up. But they're also in world design: there are
actual literal demons and devils but nobody even contemplates warning
the public about this, and keeping one in your secret headquarters in
a major city where it could enchant one of your agents into breaking
it loose is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. Our Hero performs a
summoning on his own in his home at night, where nobody could help if
he put a (literal) foot wrong, One of the weird deaths being
investigated is explicitly placed near West Wycombe… and there's no
mention of the Dashwoods or the Hellfire Caves, nothing specific to
the region at all, it's just a name. But most crucially, I simply
don't care what happens to any of these paper dolls masquerading as
people. (This was, indeed the first 18 books of the series were, in a
Bundle of Holding back in March, and I'm glad I'm on the comp list
because I'd hate to have spent money on it.)
The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman (2020): Residents in an
upmarket "retirement village" beguile the tedium of waiting to die by
looking over unsolved murders and trying to come up with possible
solutions (though never actually doing anything about it). Then
someone slightly connected to their community is murdered. Reviewer
"Yun" on Goodreads, giving four stars, says: "I was immediately taken
with the quirky and loveable cast of characters. The senior citizens
made me chuckle with their sassy antics and their unapologetic zest
for life." And if like me you feel an inner groan at "quirky and
loveable characters", be aware that that is basically what the book
has going for it. Each of them could be summed up in a phrase or two,
paper-thin in their personalities and motivations. But don't worry,
here are a whole lot more characters! It's like being at a party where
you're introduced to fifty people but never get a chance to talk with
any of them beyond superficialities. (Oh, and there's been a murder.)
Saving Time, Jodi Taylor (2023): I've been gradually going off this
series for a while, but… when the entire theme has been how you turn a
thuggish boots-in-doors emergency force into genuine police, and
there's been what seems like actual progress on that, but the first
thing that happens here in book three is the sort of petty bullying
that could have been lifted straight out of book one… I just lose all
my remaining enthusiasm at once.
Basic Training of the Heart, Jaycie Morrison (2016): yeah yeah I see
the title, but this book was actively recommended to me so I gave it a
try. And the characters are interesting, and there's clearly a fair
bit of research on WAC training in 1944. But, look, I get it, you're a
romance author, you don't speak military beyond the research you did
and you don't know what you don't know… but while a sergeant may
indeed be correctly referred to as a "non-commissioned officer", that
does not make them welcome in the officers' mess. Which breaks the
whole plot.
The Wolf Vs The Vampire, Lauretta Hignett (2024): I keep starting
urban fantasy series and they keep not being Ilona Andrews. Anyone
would think she was unusually good or something. Anyway, supernatural
gallimaufry with hierarchies everywhere, our heroine is oh so terribly
special because she got lost in otherworlds and developed lavender
hair as a stress response… and while she's a competent fighter she's
also terminally naïve. She's travelling to the "big city"
(Philadelphia!) to be with her big name boyfriend in his family's
house, but didn't tell him, and never mind the obvious red flags in
the description of him, that's just pointlessly rude. Obvious destined
romance is obvious but this book has nothing to say to me and says it
at great length. Also this is a world in which the author has written
at least twenty previous novels, but things still come to a screeching
halt after the introductory scenes to tell us how semi-hidden
supernaturalism works in the world. Just the same as in most other
urban fantasy, it turns out. Surprise!
Cunk On Everything, no credited author (2018): a spinoff of the
Philomena Cunk comedy programmes. Fun in small doses, but as an
audiobook on a long drive it very quickly becomes tedious. Yes, you're
getting things wrong in a mildly amusing manner. Again. I don't want
this for five and a half hours straight. I might keep the book in the
loo to read an entry or two at a time.
The Ossians, Doug Johnstone (2008): the band is on the edge of
success, and they're doing a midwinter tour of northern Scotland. So
basically it's a picaresque tartan noir, but most of the trouble the
principals get into is self-inflicted by Connor, pretentious git and
self-destructive druggie—and also the tight third-person viewpoint.
There might be a really interesting world out there but because we
only see it over Connor's shoulder it's all reduced to boring
dullness. Heydt's Eight Deadly Words apply yet again. And Espedair
Street did it all much better twenty years earlier.
Mind Games, Nora Roberts (2024): telepathic girl's parents are
murdered by telepathic psycho. Roberts is trying for romantic suspense
here, that style that Mary Stewart did so well, but this just didn't
engage me: it feels padded, starting with the long and class-ridden
explanation of why Thea and her parents get on with mom's family more
than dad's, and we get it but oh look you're going to go round the
same thing again. Also there's no sign of the male romantic lead until
something like half-way through. Again, I just never found myself
caring about these people; I'd rather read Touch Not the Cat again,
and that wasn't great.