What are you reading in 2024?

[prabe]

I'm back in something like my rhythm for reading. Last three books: Secret Identity by Alex Segura, a neatly noirish mystery, set in the comics industry in NYC in 1975, when both NYC and the comics industry looked as though they were circling the drain, laden with queerness and feminism and stacked with love for comics; Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford, a noirish crime novel set in 1920s Cahokia, in an alt-history where Cahokia is still a going thing, a jazzy symphony of research and writing, theme and story, pain and beauty; Moon Lake by Joe R. Lansdale, a master working in his grimy East Texas crime wheelhouse, noirsh and gothic with elements that hint at but do not insist on the supernatural, and an earned and honest bittersweet ending.

 

[Cadence]

About 1/3 of the way through The Big Book of the Continental Op. So far still being a fun read. I now see why Stout liked Hammett.

 

[overgeeked]

Just finished Mushoku Tensei #22. The author is mostly moving pieces around the chess board for the finale despite it being 3-4 books away. It’s nice that there’s some movement and action starting up again, even if it’s mostly set up at this point.

Despite reading a lot of pulp stuff, I’m not a fan of cliffhanger endings. There’s been 2-3 in the last 3-4 books. I also want a complete story in one book even if it’s short. Most of the earlier books in the series were mostly self-contained despite being part of an on-going, building narrative. The last few have slipped more and more into pure serial fiction.

At times it reminds me of the better comic book writing that wove A, B, and C stories in and out issue after issue. The A plot is resolved in this issue, but the B or C plot would become the A plot in the next issue…only for a new B or C plot to come in. Constantly shuffling plots and subplots.

If the writer keeps evolving and refining his skills, I’ll definitely auto-buy whatever he does going forward.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Finished The Dispatcher by John Scalzi the other night. It's a book that is both completely and utterly unsurprising in any way but also charming and enjoyable. It would've been a nice book to read on a plane.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Finished The Dispatcher by John Scalzi the other night. It's a book that is both completely and utterly unsurprising in any way but also charming and enjoyable. It would've been a nice book to read on a plane.

That kind of sums up Scalzi's recent work to a tee

 

[prabe]

That kind of sums up Scalzi's recent work to a tee

I think the most I've been surprised by a recent Scalzi book was when I started book one of a trilogy not knowing it was book one of a trilogy. It came clear well before I was through the book that there were arcs not ending in that volume. (Not the way I prefer to deal with planned trilogies, but not blaming anyone else for my not knowing--I'm sure it wasn't a secret, I just didn't look.)

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Finished the novella Down Among the Sticks and Bones (DAtSaB) by Seanan McGuire. Great read, and quick (I love the novella format). It had been a long time since I read Every Heart a Doorway, and I had completely forgotten the characters that were the featured characters in DAtSaB. I think that was a good thing. I'm planning to try to read more of the series before I embark on my epic Awards journey on June 1.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Hey alert if you like awards (as I clearly do), here's what the Japanese Hugo equivalents think are the best translated works. I am only familiar with the Scalzi. I really like this title Drunk on All Your Strange New Worlds

2024 Seiun Awards Nominees

Yanekon, the 62nd Japan Science Fiction Convention, has announced the finalists for the 2024 Seiun Awards (the Japanese equivalent of the Hugo Awards), honoring the best original and translated wor…

locusmag.com

 

[Clint_L]

Finished The Dispatcher by John Scalzi the other night. It's a book that is both completely and utterly unsurprising in any way but also charming and enjoyable. It would've been a nice book to read on a plane.

I feel like this could be a description of literally any Scalzi novel. He has a lane, and he sticks to it. Though I do wish he could come up with more than one protagonist.

 

[Clint_L]

I've started Yume Kitasei's The Deep Sky. It's really good thus far - deep space sabotage mystery plot, with an already memorable point of view character.