What I've Read

Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma - There's some interesting elements of this book - Girma is an Ethiopian Australian author and the culture and language are woven into the story with more nuance than I can unravel without help. It came recommended by a friend who could do some of that for me, so I can pass along her recommendation. For myself, I find YA dark academia a hard sell unless the school setting feels very central to the story. The main character is deeply wrathful over the disappearance of her sister, and as she wrangles her position of heir to her family in a social structure built around controlling vampires.

Overall, I think I could have enjoyed it more if the writing were not so slow. Emotions snarl or boil or lash, which should be exciting but instead manages to make a paragraph a slog - It slows the pace and makes the actual action harder to parse. More than once I really wondered if a character had struck at another, but it was always eyes lashing out with rage, in the middle of a paragraph and then the conversation just goes on. I lost the thread of the plot pretty dramatically, and I found the main pairing dull. I really don't think YA is for me.

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky - I loved this book after five pages and I never stopped loving it. Charles is the consummate valet, the gentleman's gentlerobot, trying to maintain standards as he is thrust outside the civilized atmosphere of the high tech manor where he takes care of his master. Each section of his adventures alluded to famous writers' works, taking ideas sideways and upside down like Tchaikovsky does so well, and reworking them into something fresh. The book is post apocalyptic in the sense that the world has fallen apart but not in the sense that the story of humanity is over. I feel like this is in conversation with Remains of the Day, as Charles really does believe in the value or service to his master, and later, extends that to humans. This book asks clearly, who matters? Who gets to decide? It answers both with a resounding: YOU.


Reading Currently
A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett - also a resounding demand that we treat people seriously and with care. I would love to do a book club that holds Excellent Women up to some of Pratchett's witches. I think it would bear examining.

My Favorite Thing is Monsters Vol 2 – Emil Ferris

What I'll Read Next

Trying to get my Hugo nominees done, at least the novels. So Alien Clay and Ministry of Time

What I’ve Read

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison – easily my fifth time thru this book. Love how this just unfolds slowly. Maia is such an isolated character but with a deeply firm sense of justice and care for his actual subjects – it’s a bit nonsense as a political system (an emperor from fucking nowhere with no real power base getting the throne and it not turning into a bloody mess? Unlikely!) but as personal journey, it was great. Read it with a book group for the first time and lovely to talk about it with a group.

Someone You Can Build a Nest In – (2024) by John Wiswell – This is a good book! Experimentally gooey and weird first person monster narration, solid set of social and romantic conundrums, solid emotional base, and the story unfolds at a good pace. Overall, a great first novel! At one point, the gooey monster uses the word “allosexual” in their mental narration and I had to put the book down for a minute, but, well, it’s otherwise a pretty good romance and a pretty good adventure. I think I’ll read John Wiswell again. He’s doing interesting things with body horror that is also just… a nonhuman person navigating disability in a convincing way. Some rosemary slander.

Excellent Women by Barbara Pym – (1952) I picked this up at the suggestion of a friend whose favorite writer is Max Beerbohm, which I think tells you something about her general reading – usually she’s reading much earlier books than me! This book is one of those English novels of manners that feels like a comedy poised on the knife edge of tragedy – if the author were any less adept at navigating social folly, it could veer into a giant mess, but she keeps dancing on that edge, and I kept laughing! Our main character is Mildred Lathbury, shabby and respectable and a reliable help to her community, observing the world of the more dramatic and more careless married neighbors who somehow keep involving her in their nonsense. Mildred is too sensible and too English to let herself get totally swept up in their drama, but is nevertheless too kind and too accustomed to ‘being useful’ for other people to totally divorce herself from the awkwardness of it all. The end of the novel reads as a bit wistful to me – Mildred seems to be veering towards an existential crisis, wondering if there’s every going to be more to her life than being one of the ‘excellent women’ whose time is at the disposal of every social need but their own happiness. I *think* from context that the end of the novel, where she agrees to help a pushy academic edits his papers, is meant to be a step towards romance and a more fulfilling life, but it’s 1952 and it’s England and Mildred is too smart to not see the trap she’s in and too accustomed to it to balk and run. It’s not quite Austen but it’s not not Austen.


What I’m Reading

Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison – 50% - Audiobook – A Re-read inspired by the Goblin Emperor. This novel follows an investigator introduced in Goblin Emperor in his life after that case. It’s a great example of mystery plots and worldbuilding working in tandem – not every petitioner who comes to Thara Celehar for help asks for help with a mystery that is mysterious to them. Sometimes the case is an opportunity for Addison to show the reader something about the world that is totally everyday for them and wildly strange to us – allowing the story to unfold the world as a mystery itself!

Style: Toward Clarity and Grace by Joseph Williams – 1981 book on writing clearly. 20%

Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma – 25% - Audiobook - A habesha-focused YA vampire novel. I’m having a little trouble squaring the idea that vampires formed a pact with humans to limit their predation and the end result was… a university? But the book comes highly recommended and I do like the main character, Kidane Adane (whose name is roughly Amharic for “hero protagonist”). She’s a bit stressful at this point in the narrative, vengeful and grieving by turns.

My Favorite Thing is Monsters Vol 2 – Emil Ferris – 30% - I gave up on the hard copy of this book because it’s a behemoth and I simply cannot hold it comfortably.

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky – 5% - I have known robot valet Charles for 5 minutes but if anything bad happens to him, I will fly to England and beat Tchaikovsky’s mailbox with a bat. This is, oddly, a nice companion to Excellent Woman by providing a POV character who is actually completely devoted to taking care of a single man, as a programmed robot, instead of a coerced woman. Charles is having a bit of a crisis.


What I’ll Read Next

The Deep Dark
Track Changes
Alien Clay
Monstress, Vol. 9: The Possessed
Navigational Entanglements
The Butcher of the Forest
The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right
The Brides of High Hill
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”

What I’ve Read
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro -
By god, what a book, what a monster of a book! Like many, I picked this up because the lure of a good book club is a siren song – the podcast 99% Invisible decided to do a year long project on this book, one extra episode a month to discuss the book and have a conversation with someone about it. (They got great people, too, including the author!)

I fell behind schedule of the podcast but kept listening and reading on my own, and eventually, to finish this book, I ended up owning it in paperback, ebook, and three audiobooks of 1/3rd of the book each. 1200 pages makes a lot of audiobook!

This book is huge story look at one man’s life in public administration of the parks and roads and buildings of New York City. At every stage, the power of an unscrupulous, brilliant, and determined mind is at play in every project he sets his hand to, and the resulting works show his massive ego and talent and all his bigotries. Robert Moses was a fascinating and complicated man, and his legacy is fascinating and complicated. It’s also a key lesson in how difficult it is to get out of power someone who is entrenched and well supported. It also shows someone who’s unethical in small things will be unethical in big ones.

Key thoughts: If you get started on a project, public figures are more embarrassed by half finished project that wastes moderate amounts of money than by one that goes wildly over budget but gets completed. Public goodwill can be purchased by getting the papers on your side, but only for so long. You can’t just be right, you have to be smart.

As a reading experience, Caro is a skilled guide thru a tangled mess of history, legislation, and construction projects. It really can just be picked up and read chapter by chapter – he’ll give you the context you need to understand. Caro’s got a great sense for a revealing anecdote and occasionally a real admiration for the people he writes about as skilled political actors.

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett – a very decent murder mystery in a fantasy world with some good characters and fun world building. Both the main characters and the world have mysteries built into them, and I found the whole thing very engaging. I don’t want to say more lest I spoil things.

Star Trek Lower Decks Warp Your Own Way by Ryan North and Chris Fenoglio – A graphic novel in the Choose Your Own Adventures style that is also a very fun Star Trek legacy piece. I don’t know Lower Decks at all but this was a fun introduction. Clearly made by people who love and appreciate Star Trek’s weirdnesses and with a eye on what makes someone heroic. I will say, it was a kind of confusing read – the Choose Your Own Adventure elements sometimes interact with the text, so you have to go thru several branches before getting enough information to figure out how to pick the right branch. It’s an iterative experience, but well written and charming enough to Trekkie that I did not get tired of it.

What I’m Reading
The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo – A reasonably interesting premise but I feel like the story is being weighed down a bit. I am about 25% in and we still haven’t gotten the main character to the Big Meeting.

Someone You Can Build a Nest in by John Wiswell – A weird and gooey book with a monster main character.

What I’ll Read Next

The Deep Dark
Track Changes
Alien Clay
Service Model
Monstress, Vol. 9: The Possessed
Navigational Entanglements
The Butcher of the Forest
The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right
The Brides of High Hill
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”

What I’ve Read
The City & the City by China Miéville - Re-read but it's been more than a decade. Really weird and interesting police procedural.

What I’m Reading
Hunting Toward Heartstill by Blackkat -picked this back up, about 59%
The Power Broker by Robert Caro - Audiobook part 3 - picked this back up again - 39%

The Antarctica Conspiracy Derin Edala – on hold.
The Ministry of time - on hold.
Someone you can build a nest in -on hold

What I'll Read Next
Star Trek: Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way
The Tainted Cup
The Deep Dark

Track Changes
Alien Clay
Service Model
Someone You Can Build a Nest In
Monstress, Vol. 9: The Possessed
Navigational Entanglements
The Butcher of the Forest
The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right
The Brides of High Hill
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”

What I've Read
Murderbot Diaries 2-4 (narrated by the wonderful Kevin R. Free ) - After last week, I went on a binge and re-read all the audiobooks: Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy

By my count, this is the third time thru most of these books and they really truly do hold up. Incredibly keenly observed stories of Murderbot encountering people, making observations, and (against its will!) feeling things about them. It's so good.

Highlights: In Artificial Condition, meeting ART but also realizing about getting to have CHOICES and how that changes the relationship to its clients. In Rogue Protocol, being so jealous of the 'pet robot' Miki and how it gets to have people take care of it and that's not beneath contempt. In Exit Strategy, it's the line, "Please. They will kill her."

Lent by Jo Walton - I went into those novel knowing nothing and it just has blown me away. This book cannot be discussed truly without massive spoilers but it is so good I want to shove people at it anyways. I went in knowing basically nothing about it, so was incredibly impressed by the way the book unfolded and I do not want to take that away from anyone. So, I will give you what will not spoil it - this book treats Christian beliefs of the middle ages as hard fact and works from there to show a character trying to live a moral and meaningful life even tho he knows that he may be damned. The characters are so fucking good. I finished it this afternoon and I am going to have to re-read it again soon.

What I'm Reading
Fugitive Telemetry - Martha Wells, Narrated by Kevin R Free ( I know this is technically out of publication order , but I prefer it.)

Hunting Toward Heartstill by Blackkat -about 45%
The Antarctica Conspiracy Derin Edala – slightly on hold.
The Ministry of time - on hold.
Someone you can build a nest in -on hold

What I'll Read Next
Star Trek: Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way
The Tainted Cup
The Deep Dark

Track Changes
Alien Clay
Service Model
Someone You Can Build a Nest In
Monstress, Vol. 9: The Possessed
Navigational Entanglements
The Butcher of the Forest
The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right
The Brides of High Hill
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”

I skipped last week because, while I had done a lot of reading, I hadn't actually finished anything. I was burned out by the past few weeks at work and personal life, so I didn't write anything up. 

What I Have Read

If you were a Mythical Thing by Kangofu_CB - Re-read bc I love this author. Solid romance between gym teacher Clint and Bucky, who is also a were wolf.

He Who Drowned the World - Shelley Parker-Chan - Book Club Re-Read. THis book rewards rereading. The characters all feel so real and could be main characters in their own stories. I had completely forgotten the last third of the book. Edit after book club: It also has a fascinating set of comparisons between many different characters - Zhu has so many connections and parallels in other characters, and in her relationships with other characters, that I loved to re-read and get a better sense of them. So many pairs of brothers in this set of novels and so many of them are vicious struggles for power; Zhu's closest friend and near-brother is willing to die for her, over and over. Deeply fractured and unequal marriages between men who disdain their wives - Zhu's wife adores her and is a trusted ally. Revenge is a continuing theme and every time someone gets it, it destroys them. Zhu wants a different kind of world and she's willing to be ruthless for it, and it's clear that is the only way out of a cycle of repeated revenge and power struggles.

My Favorite Thing is Monsters  vol 1- Emil Ferris - Well written and the art is beautiful, however, the conceit is that the book is a handwritten child's notebook and so it's literally on lined paper and HARD TO READ. The POV of a young lesbian main character in 1960s Chicago and is deeply lovely -her fascination with classic movie monsters is so charming and so recognizable. Not a Hugos nominee this year, but the second volume is.

The Hunger and The Dusk vol 1. by G. Willow Wilson - A romance and adventure story - an orc healer is set to work with a team of human adventurers to face an enemy to both human and orc society, and fulfill a peace treaty between the enemy societies. I think this is mediocre, unfortunately . The art is lovely, but the writing is thin. They refer to tropes but don't actually depict them, so it feels very lazy and informed rather than characterized. Neither main romantic lead seems to have been really written, just assembled from tropes - and while I love romance novels and tropes, this isn't even using the tropes in the writing, it's just having the characters mention the tropes in their informed backstory. As a sidebar, I think the alliance between orcs and humans is supposed to be a commentary on racism in DnD settings - orcs are often treated as nonsentient and racially evil in gaming settings, while this books fleshes out orc society and culture and makes the secondary pairing into two really interesting people. If you want to pick it up, they are actually pretty interesting! However, the common enemy just.... evil hive mind nonsentient elves? Who maybe actually have a horrible king and a shared cunning plan? It kind of undercuts the exploration of orcs as sentient and worthy of attention and care if you turn around and assign the name traits to a different random fantasy species. Hugo award nominee, does not merit the award.

We Called Them Giants - Kieron Gillen - I read this immediately after The Hunger and The Dusk and contrast is striking. This book is also working hard from some tropes, but really works them and digs right in. The POV character is engaging with a terrifying and inhuman opponent, only to discover slowly that there is intelligence, compassion, and even communication. Overwhelmingly well done, great character work, the art is haunting and the pacing is excellent. It is a much tighter story with a simpler premise and delivers on it.


What I'm Reading
The Ministry of Time by Kailane Bradley – 25% ish,
Hunting Toward Heartstill by Blackkat -about 45%
The Antarctica Conspiracy Derin Edala – slightly on hold.
Someone You Can Build a Nest In – John Wiswell – 15%

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 Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right
The Brides of High Hill
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”

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!

What I've Read
Master and Commander – Patrick O’Brian – Why was this so comforting and nice? Did any of it actually stick in my brain?

Death sent the bridegroom by blackkat - https://archiveofourown.org/works/46352779 - Star Wars AU - Mace Windu is the leader of the Jedi, who have been hidden from the Sith Empire for thousands of years. But on a planet in Mandalorian Empire space, multiple Jedi have gone missing, and the actual Mandalor shows up to complicate this. Marriage of convenience and adventure!

What I'm Reading
Memory Library – Janelle Monae – Short stories for my book club, interesting world building around art and music and creativity and memory, but the sentence by sentence writing lacks a sense of cadence. Nothing shocks; nothing stops you in your tracks. This seems like it could have used another editorial pass, but it might just be a matter of taste.

My Favorite Thing is Monsters -Emil Ferris - A comic book I am reading so that I can read the sequel piece for the hugos. Slow going.

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!

­What I’ve Read

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison – This is my fourth time thru this book, and different things stood out to me that the first time. A major turning point for Maia in the novel that I had really not remembered was him shifting from a mindset of, How can I please everyone who is making demands of me? to, Since it’s impossible to please everyone what do I think is the right thing to do?  And as a person who only recently discovered that disappointing people is not legally punishable, I felt that in my heart. This audiobook version was great - Kyle McCarley had a lot of character to each voice and it felt like it made sense for the choices he made.

I have also read a good deal of Star Wars fic by Blackkat that are all slightly too short to be counted as novels, but special attention to Cor Cordium - https://archiveofourown.org/works/52209091

What I’m Reading
His Majesty’s Dragon – Naomi Novik – I picked this up to keep my post-vacation chill mood intact, and then the library took it back. Treason! I will return to it, tho. Honestly, I feel like this one of those book series that I think I would give to any kid who lives near an ocean. 

Master and Commander – Patrick O’Brian – Since the library took Novik’s book back too early for me to finish, I figured I would go to the source material that inspired her, and start reading this! It’s about the sea and also about how being English is great because you get to fight people about stuff – wild nonsense. Jack Aubrey is a certified dummy and I think I love him – how can you not notice that the people around you are speaking Catalan and not Spanish, you hot mess of a captain.  I think audiobook is the right choice for this, as it allows the longer passages about how a sailing ship works can just glide past my ears. 

The Antarctica Conspiracy – Derin Edala made the least normal space ship in the world and the second half of the story is not any less wild. We started with a murder! 

Male Order – Unwrapping Masculinity -edited b y Rowena Chapman


What I’ll Read Next
The Memory Librarian - Janelle Monae - crossing book club 

HUGOS – This is my first year as a voting member, and I want to try and read everything (that is a single book- too many series and I will fall over). I know there is packet that goes out containing some of the books but I think it might arrive too late for me to get to all the books, so I have decided to start with what my local library can get me and work from there.




I found out about two different interesting nonfiction books recently that I want to read: 
Manhood in the Making: Cultural Concepts of Masculinity by David D Gilmore which is from 1990 and came up in a recent "If Books Could Kill" podcast episode where the host got really interested in the description of how masculine social roles construct nurturing differently than for feminine roles. It sounded interesting! 

I also found a book from 1925,  The English Language in America by GP Krapp, which came up in a Tumblr post about the way 'eye dialect', aka, phonetically writing out nonstandard spellings to portray dialects in writing, is used to portray people speaking in dialect as ridiculous and stupid (which is a dick move). I started to skim this book after finding the wikipedia article on 'eye dialect' and I found it so interesting in just the portion of the discussion where he gets into New England town hall records as a primary source for linguists to understand how colonial America was using English. I want to read it some time in more detail, or at least skim the interesting points. I realize it is literally a century out of date but I'm not a scholar, I am doing this for fun! 

What I've Read

California Bones by Greg Van Eekhout
The writing on this felt a bit sparse, but the world building and the characters more than made up for it. Osteomancy gives magic to people who consume the bones and other parts of creatures, or, the bodies of other osteomancers. A solid revenge quest which a twist in term of collaboration from an unlikely source. Is the trope of a super powerful magician who was trained from childhood by a father he must later revenge tired? Technically yes but Inigo Montoya was a blast and so are some of these characters.

True Colors by Karen Traviss Star Wars: Republic Commando #3
. Parts of a series in started and fell out of a couple years ago - the source of most Mandalorian world building in Star Wars and so everyone should read it. This series follows a group of clone Commandos who are involved in saving themselves from the machinery of empire - so, not timely or anything. The series has several running plots but also just has some nice father son and brother relationships. Traviss writes military fiction in several properties. I liked this one but it's hard to tell if the individual books are good , and certain characters are too morally complex for the Fandom to handle them well.

What I'm Reading

Karen Traviss's next Republic Commando book, Order 66, which is the downer ending of the series - there's a follow up Imperial Commando after this but, well, no more Republic.
Goblin Emperor - a re read by audio book

What I'll Read Next 
Not eentirely sure, need to check the notebook but I don't have it to hand. 


EDIT Oh the formating on this post was. BAD. I fixed it.