Reading Wrap Up 19/4/20

So I’m still mostly reading my favourite books and my reading has picked up quite a bit. I feel like I’m almost out of my reading slump now, and I actually want to read new books again.
I’ve probably just got used to lockdown and accepted this is how life’s going to be for a while. It always takes me quite a while to deal with changes and this has been a big one.
I was actually reading less being stuck at home, because I was binging Netflix (Community is one of my favourites), or obsessively watching news on youtube as everything got worse.
It wasn’t good for me, but it feels like that was a stage I had to go through to get to the point where I feel somewhat good again.
Now I’m back to reading multiple books a day and being inspired to write my own stories again. I’ve written loads in the past week and I finally have a publishing schedule I might stick to.

Age of Legend (Legends of the First Empire #4) by Michael J Sullivan

I thought I was going to like this book about the same as I liked the 2nd and 3rd books, but the ending really got me and I might not wait until next month to start Age of Death.
It ends on one hell of a cliffhanger.
Suri has been captured (she’s my favourite character) and a lot of the main characters might not survive the decision they just made. I don’t know how to describe the plot without being too spoilery, for not just this book but the series so far.
All I’ll say is the author is not scared to kill off main characters and some of my favourites have just made a big sacrifice.
The sixth book Age of Empyre comes out soon and I can’t wait.

The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentlemen Bastards #1) by Scott Lynch

I love heist stories and this is one of the best. Locke is one of my favourite characters because of how he manages to get himself in and out of so much trouble. It’s a really fun book and there are lots of twists and turns. I even like the flashbacks that show us Locke’s childhood and I usually don’t have a lot of patience for stuff like that. Especially when you’ve been left on a cliffhanger but I didn’t mind it.
The city is also really interesting with buildings built by a mysterious race before the humans moved in and took them over and rivers that are full of monsters.
There are two sequels so far Red Seas Under Red Skies and The Republic of Thieves. The reason I haven’t read them yet is that the fourth book The Thorn of Emberlain has no release date and is taking forever to be released. I don’t want to get to the third book and then have to wait forever for the next one. But I think I’m just going to read them now and then try to forget there’s a fourth book.
If you like heists then I highly recommend this book.
Five Stars.

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler

I read this book years ago and all in one session. It was pretty much all I did that day, and I liked it so much I’ve been afraid to re-read it in case it’s not as good as I remember.
That’s also why I haven’t read the sequel Parable of the Talents. Instead I went on to read Fledgeling which is the author’s take on vampires and I really liked it.
I was hesitant to re-read this because it’s about surviving after society has collapsed, and I didn’t know if this would send me back into my reading slump before I re-read all my favourites. But it didn’t.
This book was published in 1993 but is set in 2025 America, where everything is only getting worse.
The main character is Lauren who lives in a walled off community and we follow her as she grows up. They’re not rich and barely getting by but they have loads compared to the street poor who live outside the walls. Everything is expensive, including water and the emergency services.
What’s interesting is how relevant a book that was written thirty years ago is. It reminds me of when I read Brave New World which is an even older book but somehow manages to seem like it’s a comment on our modern world.
There it was all about drugs and people being indoctrinated into their place in society. In this book it’s more how history is doomed to repeat itself. Which is probably why these older books are so relevant, no one ever learns from history they just repeat it.
The older people remember the world before everything imploded and they are desperate to go back to those days. The younger people don’t remember those days but are still trying to hold onto what they have now.
Lauren creates her own religion about change called Earthseed, and I’m not going to get into what she believes because I don’t get how change is a god (at least not the way it’s described in the book).
She writes her own Book of the living, which is in contrast to other religions that seem to mostly have books of the dead.
She can see how bad things are going to get, because she’s paying attention to what’s going on in the country and knows they aren’t special and won’t be spared. She wants to be prepared but her community thinks she’s suicidal or depressed and just causing trouble.
Then you’ve got the communities that have been bought out by corporations who have the money to hire security and keep everyone fed and warm. The only problem is that the wages they pay to the people who live there won’t cover all the costs of living there.
So you get into debt pretty quickly and there’s not much chance of getting out of it. Sounds very familiar.
Despite all this, people still take up the offer of a job, and it looks like that’s the way their society is going to go. Corporations will own communities and govern them instead of the government. Also sounds familiar.
Lauren calls it debt slavery and says she has no intention of being a modern slave. Her father agrees with her and refuses to move the family to one of these places. Her step mother and her friend ask them why they have to be so negative about everything. They want to put their heads in the sand. As if ignoring the problem has ever been a good idea.
There is a lot of violence in this book and a lot of people die. They discover a lot of corpses in varying states of decay. Women also get raped a lot, but it’s more in the background and doesn’t happen to Lauren or any other women directly.
Some people also take drugs that makes watching fire better than sex. So a lot of people burn to death, including children. Other characters get tortured to death off screen, the injuries are summarised.
Lauren has an empathy disorder where she feels other people’s pain. So if a child falls over and scrapes a knee then she feels it too. She calls it sharing and meets a few other people who are the same.
They’ve been slaves most of their lives because sharing makes them better slaves. Which is part of the reason why Lauren keeps her sharing secret, in case it’s used against her.
Despite all this the book feels hopeful to me. It doesn’t make me depressed or feel like nothing is worth it anymore. But if you can’t take anymore end of the world stuff then don’t read it. Wait until we’re out of the current crisis.
I can’t say much more without spoiling the book but I highly recommend it.
The audiobook is really good and is on Scribd.
Five stars

Fool’s Errand ( The Tawny Man #1) by Robin Hobb

I finally started reading this book again, after a break of about a month, and even though I had just under half the book left I read it really quickly. It’s so good.
But it also made me cry even though I was expecting it.
I’ve already written about my thoughts on this book in a previous post so I’m not going to repeat myself.
The next book is Golden Fool and just like this book I’ve forgotten pretty much everything about it.
Five Stars

Next Week TBR

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 is nominated for a Hugo award and it’s on Scribd so I might as well.

Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone.
I read Empress of Forever and I loved it so I’m reading more by this author. All I know about this book is that it’s urban fantasy. Also I want to read it so that proves I’m out of my reading slump.

I’m also feeling like I want to read some sci-fi horror so I might raid my shelves to see what I’ve got.