Month 52 / Year 4

Month 52 of 260 (20 percent)

Size of list: 91,780 pages (18 percent above start)
Pages read: 26,471 (28.84 percent)
H-list: 7,524/23,922 (31.45 percent)
N-list: 10,031/37,308 (26.89 percent)
O-list: 8,916/30,550 (29.18 percent)
Reading: A Fire Upon the Deep
Added: Blood of Elves, Prose Edda, The Triumph of Injustice
Finished: This Is How You Lose the Time War, Old Man's War

Despite some lost time this year, I'm still ahead of the curve. I hope to do better in Year 5.

This Is How You Lose the Time War is a series of epistles between two rival agents in the titular time war. It was interesting in its concepts, such as the nature of the two rival groups, the Agency and the Garden, and in the creative ways the agents would hide their letters but set them up for discovery. But it had third act problems, in that the shifting into action wasn't set up well, and then wasn't compelling. 

Old Man's War felt like largely a recapitulation of Starship Troopers, and if you follow the author on Twitter as I do you'll know that he wouldn't deny that. There were a few interesting new concepts he explored — not the way that old people were given new bodies, which felt like a series of advertisements for SmartBlood and BrainPal and whatnot, but the way some bodies belonged to people whose brains hadn't come forward, and what that means. It was a fast read, and interesting enough that I won't mind returning to that universe.

I added Blood of Elves because it's the first Witcher book, and my teenager would love it if I read that; the Prose Edda because it's the Norse mythology that underlies dark elves and other elements; and The Triumph of Injustice because it's the virtual sequel to Capital in the 21st Century, which I read back in Year Zero.

Month 51: Alternate alternate history

Month 51 of 260 (19.62 percent)

Size of list: 91,167 pages (17.22 percent above start)

Pages read: 25,976 (28.49 percent)

H-list: 7,391/23,922 (30.9 percent)

N-list: 10,031/37,308 (26.89 percent)
O-list: 8,554/29,937 (28.57 percent)
Reading: A Fire Upon the Deep
Added: This Is How You Lose the Time War  
Finished: A Crown of Swords, The Man in the High Castle

Look, when one thing is inside another is inside another, that's not Inception. That's not what the movie meant by Inception. It's meta, or it's nesting. But the movie Inception was clear that the word inception is about the creation of an idea, and that the target had to be fooled into thinking the idea was his. 

I bring this up because The Man in the High Castle is an alternate history in which the United States lost World War II, but it features an alternate history in which the United States won World War II. It's not as trippy as you might hope, but it is interesting. It takes place mainly in Japanese-controlled San Francisco and what's left of independent United States around Denver. It's entertaining, and leaves enough unresolved that I can see how a TV series was made out of it.

A Crown of Swords was more entertaining than the last couple Wheel of Time books, but had so many pages that were just skimmable. Seriously, it could have been cut down to like a third of what it is with no real loss. It focused on two groups of characters. The young Aes Sedai searched for a magical bowl, and Rand ... I dunno, conquered some places, I guess. My plan was to read two of these books a year, but I couldn't bring myself to read any until too late in the year to read more than one. I will finish! Seven down, seven to go!

Month 50: Rivoluzione

Month 50 of 260 (19.23 percent)

Size of list: 90,624 pages (16.52 percent above start)

Pages read: 25,293 (27.91 percent)

H-list: 7,157/23,922 (29.92 percent)

N-list: 9,777/36,960 (26.45 percent)
O-list: 8,359/29,742 (28.11 percent)
Reading: A Crown of Swords
Finished: Tigana

The setting of Tigana is unmistakably fantasy Italy. It's rotated upside-down, it's called the Palm instead of the boot, and it has nothing in common with the real Italy of the 1400s except that it's divided into various principalities. One of those principalities fought against an invader, lost, and was punished. Tigana is about the survivors of that punishment, and their fight for their land. It's an unusual fantasy, in that there's no claim to be fighting for the king, only for the country, and it becomes literally for the identity of the country, since the invading army's leader, a powerful sorcerer, uses his magic to erase the country's name.
For all that, the story is really about the characters, from the band of rebels to the rival sorcerers occupying the Palm. Their personalities are vivid, drawn through dialogue, inner thoughts and choices under pressure. It's hard not to cheer for them, and that helps make the novel compelling. I highly recommend it, and I look forward to reading some more Guy Gavriel Kay.

Month 49: Aliens in transit

Month 49 of 260 (18.85 percent)

Size of list: 90,609 pages (16.50 percent above start)

Pages read: 24,870 (27.45 percent)

H-list: 6,883/23,907 (28.79 percent)

N-list: 9,628/36,960 (26.05 percent)
O-list: 8,359/29,742 (28.11 percent)
Reading: A Crown of Swords, Tigana
Finished: Way Station
Added: The Calculating Stars, Space Opera
Removed: The Soft Machine 

Way Station, the 1964 Hugo winner, is a book about a man who is impossibly old, because for the past hundred years he has been tending a house that aliens use to transit across the galaxy. Earth is not ready for contact, the galaxy has judged, but it's needed, so aliens recruit a soldier returned from the Civil War soldier to tend a house in rural Wisconsin. Everything in the book takes place in and around that house (except maybe a scene between two federal agents; I don't remember whether that was specifically in D.C., but I think it was). It's not about the aliens, but about how humans react to each other, and how mobs can be whipped up against someone or something that is different. Oh, and our predisposition for blowing ourselves up. It was good. (Also, the main character is named Enoch, but an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. writer told me on Twitter that the show's Enoch is not named after this one.)

I dropped The Soft Machine by Burroughs after maybe 50 pages. It was just... well, repellent. My copy hadn't been checked out of its library in decades, and I could see why.

Month 48: Acceleration

Month 48 of 260 (18.46 percent)

Size of list: 90,793 pages (16.5 percent above start)

Pages read: 24,734 (27.24 percent)

H-list: 6,673/23,907 (27.91 percent)

N-list: 9,492/36,960 (25.68 percent)

O-list: 8,359/29,742 (28.1 percent)
Reading: A Crown of Swords, The Soft Machine
Finished: Barrayar
Added: The Calculating Stars, Space Opera

It turns out that a medication I was on was exacerbating the issues from real life. When I dropped it, I started being able to read again.

Barrayar is book 2 by internal chronology, book 7 by publication order, of the Vorkosigan series. It has a little more science-fiction to it -- Cordelia is living on Barrayar, which was cut off from the rest of humanity for 80 years, and therefore is culturally and technologically different from what she is used to. And one result is that reproduction, for her, should involve uterine replicators, which leads to drama when she has to rescue her own unborn son, with some additional complications, of course. The action and the characters are more interesting in this one than the first one, which sums up why it won a Hugo. But even though there's only one more Hugo winner in this series, I'll probably just keep going. It's a fun series so far.

I added The Calculating Stars because it won the Hugo, and Space Opera because I wanted it to win.

Month 47: Marginally more than nothing

Month 47 of 260 (18.08 percent)

Size of list: 89,870 pages (15.55 percent above start)

Pages read: 23,300 (25.93 percent)

H-list: 6,333/23,472 (27.91 percent)

N-list: 8,608/36,960 (23.29 percent)

O-list: 8,359/29,438 (28.4 percent)
Reading: A Crown of Swords

Some of this month was Hugo reading, but I also managed to push through 125 pages of Wheel of Time book 7. 

Month 46: Nothing

Month 46 of 260 (17.69 percent)

Size of list: 89,870 pages (15.55 percent above start)

Pages read: 23,1667 (25.78 percent)

H-list: 6,333/23,472 (27.91 percent)

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

O-list: 8,359/29,438 (28.4 percent)

In the wake of our 4-year-old being taken, I went into a fairly bad depression. I read nothing this month.