What Are You Reading #2

Medstar I is a wrap and I am both emotionally fulfilled and destroyed. Fantastic novel that really emphasizes that life is too short for the what ifs or if onlys.

Onto Medstar II: Jedi Healer, and couldn’t be more excited.
 
@NotASlayer honestly, full respect to you. At about the 130 page mark in Talisman and I am so bored out of my mind that I had to take a break.
 
Plasma said:
@NotASlayer honestly, full respect to you. At about the 130 page mark in Talisman and I am so bored out of my mind that I had to take a break.
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Sometimes I am determined to finish what I started!

Sometimes I am not... 😀

Black House is completely different in style! It seems to be a sequel simply because the main character from Talisman happens to be in it.
 
Medstar II is finished, and while I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first, it was still fantastic and had a great ending. The first novel was a solid 10/10, whereas this one was a good 9/10.

Bit of an odd observation I only noticed upon finishing the book: the cover art features Barriss Offee healing a clone trooper.

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It wasn’t until I finished the book that I noticed the pose was very similar to a rather famous sculpture: La Pieta! Not quite sure what the artist was trying to convey by having Mary holding Christ’s body being replaced by Barriss healing a clone, but I just thought it was neat. There is a sub plot in the novel of Barriss attaining apparent god-like perception, so perhaps the artist pulled inspiration from that?

Pieta_de_Michelangelo_-_Vaticano.jpg


Next up, Yoda: Dark Rendevous, another in the Clone Wars imprint. I’m skipping over Jedi Trial, as I’ve heard negative things about it, and I read these Star Wars novels all out of order anyways.

I’ve heard plenty of good things about this one though, and am definitely interested in it.
 
Dark Rendevous is over and I was actually really pleasantly surprised by this one.

The story sees Yoda receiving a “message” from Count Dooku, essentially claiming he wants to return home to the Jedi Order. While seemingly an obvious trap, there is the thought that perhaps Dooku is lying to himself about it being a trap, so Yoda goes to try and save his former apprentice from the Dark Side. Secondary to this is a plot about two Jedi apprentices, Whie and Scout. Whie is the typical success story, whereas Scout isn’t capable in the Force and is much more in the physical realm.

While I was sort of initially hesitant about a plot heavily featuring children, this book goes really dark and mature by the end. The general message of it is that you can’t go home again, and whereas everyone set out on the adventure, they walked away from it vastly changed. The book also really sold me on the tragedy angle, with several unexpected character deaths in this book that shocked me, and the scene between Yoda and Dooku is heartbreaking, knowing that Yoda almost had him back to the Light.

Overall, good read. Plenty to really like here and there’s a surprising amount of depth to be found, as there’s a lot of musing on the costs of war and the effect that death has on one’s being. Towards the end I actually put the book down and sort of stared off as I made a connection with a character’s premonition of their death and the events of Revenge of the Sith.

Next up is Shatterpoint, Mace Windu’s acclaimed standalone novel from the Clone Wars era. I don’t know really what to expect here other than “Star Wars meets Heart of Darkness”, so we’ll see how it turns out.
 
I have finally given a long break to Shatterpoint. There is…a lot to unpack with that book, and a lot of my current thoughts are negative.

Currently reading Crimson Climb, the 2023 YA novel from E.K. Johnston that serves as a sort of companion piece to Solo. Very good so far, and really giving me a lot of what I wanted to know about Qi’ra and her rise to Crimson Dawn.
 
Whelp. Crimson Climb is over.

All I can really say is I hope Johnston writes a sequel soon because the book just kind of “ends” right when things are about to get really really interesting. There’s also no real twists or turns. I was expecting a last minute villain reveal from Qi’ra’s friend Trinia, but it never happened.

I’m actually kind of irritated because the book literally ends the instant before she meets
Darth Maul
for the first time (which is huge given the hierarchy of Crimson Dawn). Granted, I assume there’s plans for a sequel (and plenty of time in the timeline for it to occur pre-Solo), but it was still insanely disappointing to have all this build up to her meeting
Maul
, only for the book to end before she walks through the door.

If Johnston writes a sequel, this will definitely be alleviated, but as it is, this feels like part 1 of a duology or even a trilogy.

Next book is TBD. I have to decide based off of what’s on my shelves. Thinking of reading Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn from 2017. I’ve read the original trilogy in the past (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, Last Command) so I’m curious about the new canon rendition.
 
I just finished Crescent City: The House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J Maas. I haven’t read anything by her prior and only read this for a book club meeting in January.

This book is just all over the place. I simultaneously really like half of it and absolutely loathe the other half, namely all the awful romance garbage. There were two sex scenes that lasted maybe 5-6 pages each that I completely skipped over. The book also can get ridiculously corny, with Maas even using the beyond cliche and tired notion of “winning because the power of love/friendship”.

On the other hand, I like the world they’ve built here, the characters outside of the main and her cliche brooding love-to-be are really fun, and the story itself is engaging with good twists.

Next up is Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.
 
November
November
Haha twinning!
I am late to this party. The fairy smut AKA A Court of Thorns and Roses, became available on the Libby ap, so now I am up to chapter 24. I am definitely going down this rabbit hole.
 
Mistakes Were Made. Naughtiness! 😀 Not my usual kind of reading, but after watching a YT review I thought it might, um, work for me. Yeah... needed to take a break after some of the scenes.
 
Working my way back through the Dune saga. Currently reading Dune: House Atreides.

Original Dune (Frank Herbert) in bold, expanded Dune (Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson) in italics.

Novels read:
Dune
Dune Messiah
Children of Dune
God Emperor of Dune
Heretics of Dune
Chapterhouse Dune
Hunters of Dune
Sandworms of Dune
Dune: The Butlerian Jihad
Dune: The Machine Crusade
Dune: The Battle of Corrin
Sisterhood of Dune
Mentats of Dune
Navigators of Dune

Short stories read:
The Road to Dune
Sea Child
Treasure in the Sands
Hunting Harkonnens
The Whipping Mek
The Faces of a Martyr
Red Plague
Imperial Court
The Edge of a Crysknife

Novels left to read after I finish House Atreides:
Dune: House Harkonnen
Dune: House Corrino
Paul of Dune
The Winds of Dune
Princess of Dune
Dune: The Duke of Caladan
Dune: The Lady of Caladan
Dune: The Heir of Caladan

Short stories left to read:
The Wedding Silk
Blood of the Sardaukar
A Whisper of the Caladan Seas
The Waters of Kanly
 
November
November
I just joined the line to read Dune. I dont feel I got the full picture from the movie so I have been wanting to read it for ages, but only now found it in the library!
The Red Rising Series by Pierce Brown. Made my way through the first trilogy so far; Red Rising, Golden Son & Morning Star.

It's brilliant stuff, immersive sci-fi all set within our solar system, really crying out for adaptation....but only in a decade or so when we can get some decent TV writers in, guaranteed.
 
NotASlayer
NotASlayer
I really must start this series again. I read book one, then later got more (all?) from a remainder bookshop, but realised I needed to reread the first before starting with book two.
Orbital by Samantha Harvey - not caring for it, once again proving that the Booker Prize judges have different tastes than I do.

Curdle Creek by Yvonne Battle-Felton - a well-done horror novel descended of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery.
 
@November That's awesome you're about to read Dune for the first time. Remember there's a glossary of terms in the back of the book if you lose track of the names of some characters/concepts/devices/places. It really is the master work in the science fiction genre, but some people get intimidated and give up too early because it does a lot of set up in terms of establishing its world. The banquet scene is one of my favorite scenes in literature period, and is the point where the novel really starts to reveal its brilliance.
 
November
November
Thankyou! That will be helpful for me :)
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