GeeCee's Not-Entirely-Original Miscellany

My annual book roundup, 2025 edition. One thing about spending most of the year unemployed is it did leave more time for reading.

Red Sonja: Consumed by Gail Simone - a re-imagining of the Red Sonja character from the Conan universe, Simone gives her a deeper back story, she remains a badass and this is mostly a fun action/adventure story. I didn't really know any of the lore behind the character and still found it very enjoyable.

Darkover Landfall by Marion Zimmer Bradley - One of my friends was unloading her MZB collection and I've never read any of the Darkover books so figured I'd sample one. This one establishes the setting for the long running series, I can see why it was popular but does seem kind of dated now, I think I'm ok skipping the rest.

Swords and Sorceress short story collections 1, 3, and 4 edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley - Women led fantasy short stories, most of them very short. I found these kind of meh despite including a bunch of stories from some of my favorite authors - felt like most of them were revenge stories which gets repetitive and many also really just a scene rather than a full story. I will say the do get a bit better as the series goes on, got the sense that MZB got a wider pool of stories to choose from, but still felt even more dated than Darkover and the MZB commentary somewhat cringeworthy knowing her history.

Sinister Love by Spencer Hixon - I may be biased since Spencer is a good friend, but this is a fun romance where a misfit demon assigned to tempt a human falls in love with her charge. The book shifts gears about half way through as the couple get swept up in events when war breaks out between heaven and hell.

Fate & Fortune by Spencer Hixon - Set in the same universe as the above, but with different characters, this a Groundhog Day like story where the protagonist is stuck in a time loop trying to get things right with the catch that he has an opponent that is also looping trying to stop him, gets very timey wimey and is also a lot of fun.

Axiom's End by Lindsey Ellis - A First Contact scenario where aliens and humans are trying to understand each other. Some things felt dated, like there is a character and org obviously based on Assange and Wikileaks and I felt that was adorable, I remember when we all cared about Wikileaks, but anyway, I actually loved this book because I'm a sucker for books where the aliens actually feel alien and the aliens in this are extremely well done so recommended to those into that sort of thing.

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz - The culture war goes all timey wimey, this is a battle between groups of time travelers fighting for their feminist or misogynist versions of reality. Pretty good, the culture war aspects can get a little trite at times, but I can appreciate some solid Nazi punching and thought the time travel stuff very well done.

Dungeon Crawler Carl series, books 1-7 by Matt Dinniman - What a journey these are! So fun in such a messed up way. Imagine Hunger Games, but the "game" is a psychotic World of Warcraft-esque thing involving the entire world that is run by an insane computer (think Paranoia) that the ordinary people of Earth are thrown into with no warning. Also the main character is named Carl and he's going through this with his cat, Princess Donut, who is now intelligent and can talk. The early books are focused on Carl just trying to survive and eventually starting to put together a party of folks that can count on each other in this super hostile environment. As the books go on they reveal more of the universe and as Carl gains more confidence he and his friends start to get involved in political intrigues outside of the "game." These became a sort of bizarre comfort reading this year. Trigger warnings for gore and violence, but I found it so over the top it becomes cartoonish.

The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates - Coates writing about writing, part autobiography, part travelogue, part essay on the state of the world; I felt this was a deeply personal work and really being given a glimpse inside Coates fascinating mind. Highly recommended.

The Book of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves and China Mieville - An action/adventure story revolving around an immortal warrior. I am not familiar with the comics this is based on, I found it less weird than most of Mieville's writing, more standard thriller. Enjoyable read but did not really stand out for me.

The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman - Some of you may know the author better as Christophe the Insulter, this is a most excellent fantasy story. The protagonist reminds me a lot of Phillipe from Ladyhawke, an irreverent, but talented ne'er-do-well who gets caught up in political shenanigans. Highly recommended for fantasy lovers.

The Daughters' War by Christopher Buehlman - A prequel to the above, this one has a very different tone, less funny, more epic, as the title suggests it is very much a war story, just set in a fantasy world. I thought it well done and it does a lot of interesting world building, but by its nature less fun than the above.

Swordheart by T. Kingfisher - Hard to go wrong with Ursula Vernon, writing as T. Kingfisher, the first of 4 or hers I read this year. This one is a women trying to escape her family finding a magic sword with a man trapped inside of it and of course they fall in love, totally fantasy rom-com material, nothing too surprising but lots of fun.

Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher - Set in the same world, this is also a romance although a more sobering one as a pair, each suffering PTSD, find healing in love as they try to solve a murder mystery. Very well done.

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher - A fairie tale-esque revenge story of a woman who goes on a quest to save her sister from an abusive marriage, it is funnier then that sounds though as her quest companions are a bunch of goofball misfits and there is a nice undercurrent of the value of found family there.

Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher - Another fairie tale like story, this one mostly a mystery as an expert on poisons is called upon to investigate a mysterious illness and stumbles upon a whole other world. As always with Kingfisher it is pretty great.

This Way Up: When Maps Go Wrong (And Why It Matters) by Mark Cooper-Jones and Jay Foreman - Probably not a shocker that I'm a big fan of Map Men on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfxy4_sBQdxy3A2lvl-y3qWTeJEbC_QCp for the uninitiated) so when they published a book I had to read it. Their same goofy style commenting on some of the more notorious mapping blunders in history - most of which I was familiar with, but still fun to read and they did introduce me to the Situationists who are folks who found the Surrealists to be too normal.

The Adventure of the Demonic Ox and Testimony of Mute Things by Lois McMaster Bujold -
Continuing from previous years I have kept up with the Penric and Desdemona stories which continue to be comfort reading. Nothing especially new here, though Testimony is interesting as it takes place earlier in Penric's chronology that the other recent stories, makes me wonder if Bujold is planning on doing more flashback style stories.

Happy New Year everyone.