Sometimes as a book reviewer, your eyes get a little bigger than your metaphorical book-digesting stomach, and you sign yourself up for an unwieldy amount of ARCs. Sometimes that person is me. I have signed up to read too many books. ALAS! I will prevail, but it does mean that my reading schedule for the next six months or so is fairly set.

Some of those books I need to get to are published by the lovely people who run this website, and I am very excited for those, but it also means that there are many a book on my physical shelf that need to be on the back burner for a while. I will try to sprinkle them in between these review copies, but I imagine the big-boy fantasy books on my list are going to be late 2026 projects at best. (With that said, my wife and I are trying to figure out how we can go to Dragonsteel Nexus this year, and I would like to finish up The Stormlight Archive before/if we go).

Anyway, here are some books I would love to get to sometime soon, and some that I will definitely get to before the end of the year.

• Speaking Bones by Ken Liu: I have been slowly making my way through the Dandelion Dynasty for the past four years or so, and frankly, the only reason I haven't finished it yet is because I don't want it to end. I maintain that Ken Liu is operating at a level so much higher than other authors that reading him feels like eating caviar or some other food that y0u only bring out for special occasions. As much as I love Sanderson and the like, Liu's world that he has built with these books is so infinitely fascinating and detailed that it's hard for me to really see anything else in the same light. These books are no easy task (see the insane list of characters that only grows bigger as the books go on), but they are among the best pieces of literature I've ever consumed, and I suggest you get on them as soon as possible. I've been on the Ken Liu train for a long time now, and it seems that others are finally catching on. Genius in motion.

• Children of Dune by Frank Herbert: In an effort to get up to speed before Denis Villenueve's Dune Part 3 comes out later this year, I have been making my way through the novels that have inspired the films. I finished Dune Messiah early this year and came away feeling like I could read all six of these bad boys. Children of Dune has been sitting by my bedside ready for me to dig into it for a couple of months now, but I probably won't get around to it until the end of the year comes closer. An absolutely lovely phenomenon it is when both the source material and adaptations are excellent.

• The Dog Stars by Peter Heller: I know almost nothing about this book, BUT, the guy who wrote it lives in my general vicinity and one of my coworkers has raved about it so I have it on a suspended hold at the library. I'm a massive fan of Station Eleven, so if this book is even remotely like S11, I know I'm in for a treat.

There are MANY more books I would love to get into sometime soon, but these ARCs are standing in the way (for now).

• A Compliment of Scoundrels by S.V. Lockwood

• Buzzard by Inez Ray

• Tales from the Territory by Travis Baldree

• As You Wake, Break the Shell by Becky Chambers

I am also trying like hell to get my hands on the new Ken Liu short story collection, The Passing of the Dragon, as well as book three in the Shadow of the Leviathan series, A Trade of Blood.

Anywho, what are you all reading? What catches your eye on the upcoming release schedule? Let me know.

Shawn

I'm in the middle of reading Bury our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab for our book club (join our Discord to participate!) and I can't help but notice the similarities it has with her previous novel, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.

I read Addie last year (or rather, listened to it) and ultimately ended up really liking it. It took me several months to get through it, not because it wasn't great, but because her writing doesn't lend itself to speedy consumption. Her prose is detailed, romantic, and it pays to spend time with it. I struggle with audiobooks as it is (ADHD brain be damned), so trying to listen to the book while I was playing basketball or doing chores was a bit of a losing battle at times. Towards the end of the book where the stakes start to feel a little more urgent, and Addie is really coming to terms with the life that she's found for herself, I couldn't put it down. 5/5 from me, and it immediately made me curious about her other work.

If you don't know, Addie LaRue is about a young woman in France in the 1700's who makes a deal with the devil for ultimate freedom, allowing her to escape her bethrotal to a man she doesn't even know. In true faustian bargain fashion, she is granted immortality, but the monkey paw curls and she finds that none of her family remember who she is, nor will anyone else for the rest of her life. Tragic stuff!

The novel sprawls across the centuries between her first encounter with the devil and present day, where she happens to find someone who does remember her, and eventually falls into a relationship with them. I won't say much more than that, but my point is that Schwab uses that framework to illustrate the longing and psychological turmoil that one goes through when you live for hundreds of years. Her writing is beautiful, and if you're the sappy romantic type like me, I think you'll get a lot of out of the book.

Fast foward to today and I am in the middle of reading Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil. Bury Our Bones deals with three lesbian vampires, living their lives across three separate times and places: 1530s Spain, 1827 London, and 2019 Boston. Much like Addie, vampires keep on keeping on into eternity barring any major setbacks. About 120 pages in to Bury Our Bones, it has become clear to me that Schwab has a real fascination with eternity. To be real, don't we all?

As a human being, I hope that by the time I reach my end, the number of seconds allotted to me will feel like the exact right amount. I think we all fear that we won't have enough, and maybe it'll never be enough, but the prospect of immortality brings its own set of anxieties. What do I do will all my loved ones disappear? Who do I relate to when I'm the only one with this predicament? How do I navigate this life without being studied like a science experiment?

So far, Bury Our Bones has been another banger of a book, and I very much appreciate the sapphic world that it lives in. If I may recommend another book about immortality, I highly encourage you to seek out The Past Through Tomorrow by Robert A. Heinlein, specifically the story Methuselah's Children. The Past Through Tomorrow exists as an imagined future history, charting out the social and technological future of humanity from the early 1900's to hundreds of years in the future. Heinlein wrote these stories across many decades, and his grand vision for the future of humanity is a marvel to behold in its entirety. You may have to endure some elements of his writing that haven't aged well, but if you're a sci-fi nerd, I can't recommend the collection highly enough.

Methuselah's Children follows a man named Lazarus Long, who if you are paying close attention, exists throughout the breadth of the stories from the very beginning. The oldest man on earth lives through earth's trials and tribulations for hundreds of years, and eventually sets his sights on the stars. It's one of my favorite short stories ever, in one of my favorite short story collections ever. Well worth your time, and thanks to my grandfather for lending it to me several years ago.

Anyway, enough rambling for me today. What are you reading? What are you listening to? What are you watching? Here's some good stuff.

Have a wonderful day!

Shawn