Month 40: Silence about Lankhmar

Month 40 of 260 (15.38 percent)

Size of list: 89,152 pages (14.63 percent above start)

Pages read: 20,907 (23.45 percent)

H-list: 5,943/23,530 (25.26 percent)

N-list: 8,209/36,960 (22.21 percent)

O-list: 6,755/28,662 (23.57 percent)

Finished: Swords and Deviltry
Added: Swords Against Death, Educated: A Memoir

Reading: Educated: A Memoir

Progress is being made, but I finished the first Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser book, and decided to read the second next and comment about them together next month.

Month 39 / Year 3

Month 39 of 260 (15.00 percent)

Size of list: 88,552 pages (13.85 percent above start)

Pages read: 20,365 (23.0 percent)

H-list: 5,943/23,530 (25.26 percent)

N-list: 8,001/36,694 (21.80 percent)

O-list: 6,421/28,328 (22.67 percent)

Finished: The Best of H.P. Lovecraft (volume 3), Lord of Chaos
Next: Swords and Deviltry (Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser)

In terms of progress, I closed out Year 3 not as high as I'd like, but above the diagonal red line. I'd like to work more on the N list of fantasy novels, get it above the O list of other stuff, but really I feel okay about where I am.

I had expected that the volume of Lovecraft labeled The Best of H.P. Lovecraft wouldn't actually be his best work, just his last work, but no, it was truly his best. The Call of Cthulhu, The Colour Out of Space and other late stories were far better than the early stuff. It was still racist, but less overtly. It was also enjoyable to read the stories that I had played through back when I played Mythos, the Lovecraft CCG. 

Lord of Chaos, volume 6 of The Wheel of Time, was, again, a good story that was just half again as long as it should have been. Entire chapters of travel could be excised with no diminishment of the story! But then you get to the chapters where things happen, where people make things happen, and it's enjoyable -- at least, enjoyable enough. Honestly, though, I'm reading it more to accomplish reading it than because I want to, at this point. 

Month 38: I grok that this book did not hold up

Month 38 of 260 (14.62 percent)

Size of list: 88,552 pages (13.85 percent above start)

Pages read: 19,748 (22.3 percent)

H-list: 5,943/23,530 (25.26 percent)

N-list: 7,384/36,694 (20.12 percent)

O-list: 6,421/28,328 (22.67 percent)

Finished: Stranger in a Strange Land
Reading: The Best of H.P. Lovecraft (volume 3), Lord of Chaos

Stranger in a Strange Land is an acknowledged classic, a Hugo winner whose name is known beyond SF circles, mainly for the introduction of the word "grok." And it starts with an interesting concept — a human child, raised by Martians, a Tarzan of outer space — and then gets more interesting as it establishes that, as far as Earth law is concerned, he owns Mars. But then it all gets frittered away as Heinlein uses the Martian to establish a free love society based on a sort of telekinesis and lots of sex between everyone. Oh, and there's a key character who is super-rich for no apparent reason, and lots of monologues about how grokking and open sex have improved relationships. I wish Asimov had taken over a third of the way in. 

Month 37: Progress, but no report

Month 37 of 260 (14.23 percent)

Size of list: 88,552 pages (13.85 percent above start)

Pages read: 19,411 (21.92 percent)

H-list: 5,797/23,530 (24.64 percent)

N-list: 7,193/36,694 (19.60 percent)

O-list: 6,421/28,328 (22.67 percent)

Finished: none
Reading: Stranger in a Strange Land, Lord of Chaos

I'm reading, but haven't finished anything. Progress continues apace. This month and last month have not been good months, but I remain on the right track. As the kid grows, it will be easier. I keep telling myself that.

Month 36: The mid-trilogy doldrums

Month 36 of 260 (13.86 percent)

Size of list: 88,224 pages (13.43 percent above start)

Pages read: 18,869 (21.31 percent)

H-list: 5,415/23,530 (23.01 percent)

N-list: 7,033/36,694 (19.17 percent)

O-list: 6,421/28,328 (22.67 percent)

Finished: Ancillary Sword
Reading: Lord of Chaos
Added: Ancillary Mercy

After the novelty and wonder of Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Sword was a big disappointment. Ancillary Justice set up this huge conflict between, well, the ruler of a vast empire and herself. Ancillary Sword just kind of treads water at a space station orbiting a planet. It's like a filler episode of a TV show, one that explores the effects of the empire, and power dynamics of the colonizer-colonized and owner-worker. If this were a series of 10 novels, it would be a worthwhile story. But this is a trilogy, and it didn't feel like it moved the story forward from the first part. When I read Ancillary Mercy next year I'll know for sure, but I suspect that this should have been a duology, but the publishers demand trilogies. 

Month 35: The Canterbury Tales of Space

Month 35 of 260 (13.46 percent)

Size of list: 88,224 pages (13.43 percent above start)

Pages read: 18,562 (21.04 percent)

H-list: 5,415/23,530 (23.01 percent)

N-list: 6,842/36,694 (18.65 percent)

O-list: 6,305/28,000 (22.52 percent)

Finished: Hyperion
Reading: Ancillary Sword, Lord of Chaos
Added: The Stone Sky (2018 Hugo winner), The Fall of Hyperion

I pretty much knew nothing about Hyperion, the 1990 Hugo winner. I knew I had seen it on many bookshelves, but nobody really talked about. We should talk about it, because it's a wonderful book (as one would expect from a Hugo winner). There is some...thing on the planet Hyperion, something called the Shrike, and the legend is that pilgrims can go there in a group, and it will grant the wish of one of the pilgrims and kill the rest. The bulk of the book is six stories of what compels pilgrims to make this trip. The stories are a variety, as befits a variety of motives — salvation, a child, a poem — but all wonderful. As soon as I finished it, I put the sequel on the list to read next year. 

I'm also reading Lord of Chaos, book six of the Wheel of Time. Ugh ugh ugh WOW ugh ugh WOW. An abridged version, a good parts version, would be a great gift to humanity.

Month 34: A bit of the non-European

Month 34 of 260 (13.08 percent)

Size of list: 87,291 pages (12.23 percent above start)

Pages read: 17,874 (20.48 percent)

H-list: 5,137/23,114 (22.22 percent)

N-list: 6,704/36,694 (18.27 percent)

O-list: 6,033/27,483 (21.95 percent)

Finished: Aerie
Reading: Hyperion, Lord of Chaos
Added: From A Certain Point of View

Aerie is the fourth and final volume in Mercedes Lackey's Dragon Jousters trilogy. I say trilogy because this book was an aftermath, with the villains defeated at the end of book three; now it's all about what to do after. The hero of the story, Kiron, has risen from farm slave to dragon wing leader, but now he faces contradictory pressures from his mother, his girlfriend and others. His girlfriend also tries to rearrange the military a little bit. There is a new enemy, coming from the east, but this enemy feels like a tack-on to the main story. On the other hand, this enemy makes for a super cool story on its own, and the ending confrontation could inspire a pretty good Egyptian-themed D&D campaign. (I tried to use it with the Planeshift Amonkhet stuff, but the players wanted to switch settings before we got far enough. Alas.) It was nice, especially against the Wheel of Time, to have a fantasy set in a non-EuroTolkien setting, even though the characters acted like... well, like anybody else would act; they didn't have a different set of ethics or priorities as one might expect from a far Eastern fantasy.