Wednesday Reading Meme May 14 2025

[kitewithfish]

Unrelated: I have finished Andor season 2 and would LOVE to talk about it. I had not gotten the memo that this was going to be a 2 season show, instead of 5 – probably should have picked up on it. Still very good, just a much faster pace, I have some specific thoughts about that last image. Probably going to go back and watch Rogue One now.

What I've Read
Rivers of London/Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch – Finished, not super engaging, I don’t think I will read the rest. I just began to find the narrator irritating and I ended up finishing the book without much pleasure, tho the plot was engaging and the story was not bad! It's got some cool magic in it, I don't think that other people would find this a bad book.

What I'm Reading
Hunting Toward Heartstill by Blackkat -about 45%

My Favorite Thing is Monsters -Emil Ferris - No movement

The Antarctica Conspiracy Derin Edala – slightly on hold.

What I'll Read Next
Hugo Nominees are out!
Track Changes
The Deep Dark
My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Book 2
The Tainted Cup
Alien Clay
Service Model
The Ministry of Time
Someone You Can Build a Nest In
Star Trek: Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way
Monstress, Vol. 9: The Possessed
Navigational Entanglements
The Butcher of the Forest
The Hunger and the Dusk: Vol. 1
The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right
The Brides of High Hill
We Called Them Giants
The Tusks of Extinction
“Charting the Cliff: An Investigation into the 2023 Hugo Nomination Statistics”
“Signs of Life”
“By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars”
“The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video”
“Loneliness Universe”
“The 2023 Hugo Awards: A Report on Censorship and Exclusion”
“The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea”
“Lake of Souls”

also bought some books – orb of cairado and the foz meadows novella, so stuff to look at there!

Comments

[spikedluv]

Too bad you didn't enjoy the first in the Rivers of London series.

[yourlibrarian]

You're not alone. I read 2 of the Rivers of London books because so many people enjoyed them. But I didn't like them enough to keep going.

[nerakrose]

Andor season two??? I thought there was only going to be one season 👀 I really enjoyed Andor s1 and have been wanting more ever since, so I think I will be re-watching s1 and then getting into s2. :D

I'm not a HUGE Star Wars fan tbh - I enjoy it well enough, but I'm not all that into all the different media that has come out from it, and haven't kept up with it all, but Andor really stood out to me.

[nerakrose]

I forgot to say wrt Rivers of London - some years ago now, I had a discussion here on DW regarding rep in books (I think, prompted by my feelings about Scott Lynch's books, but I'm not sure I'm remembering that correctly) and somebody recommended the Rivers of London series to me on the basis of (I'm paraphrasing) 'the author wasn't great about things like trans stuff in the beginning but he learned and included a trans character in book 5'. my reaction to that was essentially 'and so why should I sit through 4 books with potentially triggering transphobic content sprinkled throughout to get "some rep" in book 5, when I can just go and read something else where that isn't an issue from the start?'

Your comments regarding fatphobia is endearing me even less to the series now :'')

don't get me wrong, it's a good thing when authors learn and improve and if Aaronovitch really did improve on the trans stuff (and potentially other things too?) then that's great, but I'm also like... I could just read something else. and if he ever writes something new, I might be more willing to try that out than start with this series.