Month 42: The end of the trilogy after The Trilogy

Month 42 of 260 (16.15 percent)

Size of list: 89,432 pages (14.99 percent above start)

Pages read: 21,710 (24.28 percent)

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

N-list: 8,475/36,960 (22.93 percent)

O-list: 7,2925/28,942 (25.2 percent)

Finished: Empire's End

Reading: Golden Fool

Added: The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu

The only book I finished this month was Empire's End, the third volume in the Star Wars: Aftermath trilogy. It was a little disappointing after the high-tension end of Life Debt, the second book. It was a conclusion, and it features Jakku, and explains why Jakku is littered with Star Destroyers and other crashed ships. There was a moment which made me recoil a little, that felt less like Star Wars and more like Transformers, when a droid manages to reassemble itself, but given the reactions from Star Wars haters, I wanted to resist even that. The book is fine, I guess, and I really like the fact that it's in the Star Wars world but doesn't use the major Star Wars characters so much -- Han and Leia are key, and Mon Mothma and Mas Amadda are there, but it's really about Temmin, Nora, Sinjir and Jas. It makes me want to read more Star Wars, but it's still not as thick as the other science fiction I'm about to bite into. 

Month 41: Wilderness and civilization, imagined and real

Month 41 of 260 (15.77 percent)

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

Pages read: 21,453 (24.06 percent)

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

N-list: 8,475/36,960 (22.93 percent)

O-list: 7,0355/28,662 (24.06 percent)

Finished: Swords Against Death, Educated: A Memoir

Reading: Empire's End

I finished two books this month, fiction and nonfiction, fantasy and reality. But a common thread running through Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser (especially volume 1, which I read last month) and Educated is how someone raised in the wilderness among an insular people then associates with the alien life of the city. Honestly, this is a stretch — a wilderness barbarian facing the thieves' guild actually has a much easier time than a girl homeschooled (only not actually schooled) facing college.

I read the first two Lankhmar collections because volume 1, Swords and Deviltry, was actually a prequel, a collection written 30 years after the real first stories that appeared in volume 2, Swords Against Death. While the early stories were tales of adventure in and around the city of Lankhmar in the world of Nehwon, the prequel stories tell what the two protagonists were doing before they met, then how they met, then set up an enemy for them. I liked the older stories better, because it put the protagonists up against interesting enemies — seven priests on an island, or a mysterious ship, or a magical shop. The personalities of the characters slowly bubble out, but they're not much more than tropes. The stories are an easy read, and maybe I'll go back for volumes 3 to 7 later. There are worse ways to spend one's time.

Educated: A Memoir is the true story of Tara Westover, who was raised by religious fundamentalist, survivalist, apocalypse-preparing Mormons in southern Idaho, then went to college and discovered the world. It was the most stressful thing I can remember reading. The abuse she suffered — from an older brother who was just mean, from a father who meant well but just did not understand things like safety or medicine — made for a gripping read, but in part because I kept waiting for even worse to happen. There's so much to explore there, especially, from my point of view, about the father. Would he have been this way if the government hadn't been such destructive, murderous assholes at Ruby Ridge? Why did he not adjust any of his thinking when the Y2K crisis didn't come to pass? And of course, my view is colored by my own circumstances — someone I have to deal with more than I would like also has similar views about vaccines and about the government, and I worry that this insanity will hurt people I love.

So I'm gonna focus on Star Wars next. 

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.