Books 2021—The Last Year of the Covid
Year 10
What’s that about? 10 years? For all my mumbling I should stop, it seems I am addicted to counting. Could it be I am The Count’s illegitimate love child? His twin brother who for years was trapped in a foam mask? His doppelgänger recently unfrozen from the Antarctic ice?
Well…maybe not. With no further silliness, I present Year of the Covid: Part II — The Readening…
January (11)
- The Sundering Walter Jon Williams (2003)
Book 2 of Dread Empire’s Fall – ebook; - Praxis Walter Jon Williams (2002)
Book 1 of Dread Empire’s Fall – ebook; - Conventions of War Walter Jon Williams (2005)
Book 3 of Dread Empire’s Fall – ebook; - The Burning God R. F. Kuang (2020)
Book 3 of The Poppy War – ebook; - Plague Ship Andre Norton (1956)
Book 2 of Solar Queen – ebook; - A Sky Beyond the Storm Sabaa Tahir (2020)
Book 4 of An Ember in the Ashes – ebook; - Investments Walter Jon Williams (2012)
Book 3.5 of Dread Empire’s Fall – ebook; - Impersonations Walter Jon Williams (2016)
Book 3.5 of Dread Empire’s Fall – ebook; - Silver in the Wood Emily Tesh (2019)
– ebook; - Blood and Circuses Kerry Greenwood (1994)
Book 6 of Phryne Fisher Mysteries – ebook; - Hive Monkey Gareth L. Powell (2014)
Book 2 of Ack-Ack Macaque – ebook;
February (11)
- Machine Elizabeth Bear (2020)
Book 2 of White Space – ebook; - Three Cheers for Me Donald Jack (1973)
Book 1 of The Bandy Papers – ebook; reread - That’s Me in the Middle Donald Jack (1973)
Book 2 of The Bandy Papers – ebook; reread - Uneasy Money P.G. Wodehouse (1916)
– ebook; - A School For Scandal Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1777)
– ebook; reread - It’s Me Again Donald Jack (1975)
Book 3 of The Bandy Papers – ebook; reread - Me Bandy, You Cissie Donald Jack (1979)
Book 4 of The Bandy Papers – ebook; reread - The Accidental War Walter Jon Williams (2018)
Book 4 of Dread Empire’s Fall – ebook; - Fleet Elements Walter Jon Williams (2020)
Book 5 of Dread Empire’s Fall – ebook; - Range of Ghosts Elizabeth Bear (2012)
Book 1 of The Eternal Sky – ebook; - Shattered Pillars Elizabeth Bear (2013)
Book 2 of The Eternal Sky – ebook;
March (9)
- Steles of the Sky Elizabeth Bear (2014)
Book 3 of The Eternal Sky – ebook; - Ruddy Gore Kerry Greenwood (1995)
Book 7 of Phryne Fisher Mysteries – ebook; - An Apprentice to Elves Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear (2015)
Book 3 of Iskryne – ebook; - Women and Economics Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1898)
– ebook; - Unwind Neal Shusterman (2007)
Book 1 of The Unwind dystology – ebook; - Black Tide Rising John Ringo & Gary Poole (2016)
Book 4.5 of Black Tide Rising – ebook; - Tigana Guy Gavriel Kay (1990)
– ebook; - Four-Day Planet H. Beam Piper (1961)
– ebook; - The House in the Cerulean Sea TJ Klune (2020)
– ebook;
April (11)
- Foundation Isaac Asimov (1951)
Book 1 of Foundation – ebook; reread - Foundation and Empire Isaac Asimov (1952)
Book 2 of Foundation – ebook; reread - Second Foundation Isaac Asimov (1953)
Book 3 of Foundation – ebook; reread - The Life of Buffalo Bill William F Cody (1879)
– ebook; - Forever Peace Joe Haldeman (1998)
– ebook; - The Lions of Al-Rassan Guy Gavriel Kay (1995)
– ebook; - Witchmark C. L. Polk (2018)
Book 1 of Kingston Cycle – ebook; - Stormsong C. L. Polk (2020)
Book 2 of Kingston Cycle – ebook; - The Life of Olaudah Equiano Olaudah Equiano (1789)
– ebook; - City of Lies Sam Hawke (2018)
Book 1 of Poison Wars – ebook; - The Curse of Chalion Lois McMaster Bujold (2001)
Book 1 of Chalion – ebook; reread
May (11)
- Paladin of Souls Lois McMaster Bujold (2003)
Book 2 of Chalion – ebook; reread - Urn Burial Kerry Greenwood (1996)
Book 8 of Phryne Fisher Mysteries – ebook; - Soulstar C. L. Polk (2021)
Book 3 of Kingston Cycle – ebook;
On the Trail of the Space Pirates Carey Rockwell (1953)
Book 3 of Tom Corbett – ebook; - A Brightness Long Ago Guy Gavriel Kay (2019)
– ebook; - Hollow Empire Sam Hawke (2020)
Book 2 of Poison Wars – ebook;
The Dispatcher John Scalzi (2017)
Book 1 of The Dispatcher – ebook;
The Dispatcher: Murder by Other Means John Scalzi (2021)
Book 2 of The Dispatcher – ebook; - In Fury Born David Weber (2005)
– ebook; reread - Shadows in Flight Orson Scott Card (2012)
Book 5 of Ender’s Shadow – ebook; - The Stars Are Legion Kameron Hurley (2017)
– ebook;
June (8)
- The Chrysalids John Wyndham (1955)
– ebook; reread - A Desolation Called Peace Arkady Martine (2021)
Book 2 of Teixcalaan – ebook; - The Assassins of Thasalon Lois McMaster Bujold (2021)
Book 10 of Penric & Desdemona – ebook; - Fugitive Telemetry Martha Wells (2021)
Book 6 of The Murderbot Diaries – ebook; - The Baron of Magister Valley Steven Brust (2020)
– ebook; - Star Rebel F.M.Busby (1984)
Book 1 of Hulzein – ebook; reread - Rebel’s Quest F.M.Busby (1985)
Book 2 of Hulzein – ebook; reread - Zelde M’Tana F.M.Busby (1980)
Book 4 of Rissa Kerguelen – ebook;
July (14)
- Me Too Donald Jack (1983)
Book 5 of The Bandy Papers – ebook; reread - This One’s On Me Donald Jack (1987)
Book 6 of The Bandy Papers – ebook; - Short Stories P. G. Wodehouse (1901 ff)
– ebook; - Rissa and Tregare F.M.Busby (1979)
Book 2 of Rissa Kerguelen – ebook; reread - The Long View F.M.Busby (1976)
Book 3 of Rissa Kerguelen – ebook; - The Goblin Emperor Katherine Addison (2014)
– ebook; - Tartuffe Molière (1664)
– ebook; - Me So Far Donald Jack (1989)
Book 7 of The Bandy Papers – ebook; - The Jew of Malta Christopher Marlowe (1589)
– ebook; - Alien Debt F.M.Busby (1984)
Book 3 of Hulzein – ebook; - Systemic Shock Dean Ing (1981)
Book 1 of Quantrill – ebook; - Single Combat Dean Ing (1983)
Book 2 of Quantrill – ebook; reread - The Country Wife William Wycherley (1675)
– ebook; - Wild Country Dean Ing (1985)
Book 3 of Quantrill – ebook;
August (8)
- Hitler vs Me Donald Jack (1997)
Book 8 of The Bandy Papers – ebook; - Stalin vs Me Donald Jack (2005)
Book 9 of The Bandy Papers – ebook; - Velocity Weapon Megan E. O’Keefe (2019)
Book 1 of Protectorate – ebook; reread - Chaos Vector Megan E. O’Keefe (2020)
Book 2 of Protectorate – ebook; - Catalyst Gate Megan E. O’Keefe (2021)
Book 3 of Protectorate – ebook; - The Witness for the Dead Katherine Addison (2021)
Book 2.0 of Goblin Emperor – ebook; - Raisins and Almonds Kerry Greenwood (1997)
Book 9 of Phryne Fisher Mysteries – ebook; - Rebels’ Seed F.M.Busby (1986)
Book 4 of Hulzein – ebook;
September (8)
- Architects of Memory Karen Osborne (2020)
Book 1 of The Memory War – ebook; - Engines of Oblivion Karen Osborne (2021)
Book 2 of The Memory War – ebook; - Oath of Swords David Weber (1995)
Book 1 of Bahnakson – ebook; reread - The War God’s Own David Weber (1998)
Book 2 of Bahnakson – ebook; reread - Wind Rider’s Oath David Weber (2004)
Book 3 of Bahnakson – ebook; reread - A Summoning of Demons Cate Glass (2021)
Book 3 of Chimera – ebook; - War Maid’s Choice David Weber (2012)
Book 4 of Bahnakson – ebook; reread - The Paladin C.J. Cherryh (1998)
– ebook; reread
October (11)
- Guardians of Porthaven Shane Arbuthnott (2021)
– ebook; - Her Majesty’s Wizard Christopher Stasheff (1986)
Book 1 of A Wizard in Rhyme – ebook; reread - The Element of Fire Martha Wells (1993)
Book 1 of Ile-Rien – ebook; - Sheepfarmer’s Daughter Elizabeth Moon (1988)
Book 1 of The Deed of Paksenarrion – ebook; reread - Divided Allegiance Elizabeth Moon (1988)
Book 2 of The Deed of Paksenarrion – ebook; reread - Oath of Gold Elizabeth Moon (1989)
Book 3 of The Deed of Paksenarrion – ebook; reread - Victories Greater Than Death Charlie Jane Anders (2021)
– ebook; - Cultivar Sharon Lee & Steve Miller (2017)
Book 25 of Liaden Adventures – ebook; - The Death of the Necromancer Martha Wells (1998)
Book 2 of Ile-Rien – ebook; - The Witches of Karres James H. Schmitz (1966)
– ebook; reread - A Deadly Education Naomi Novik (2020)
Book 1 of Scholomance – ebook; reread
November (8)
- The Last Graduate Naomi Novik (2021)
Book 2 of Scholomance – ebook; - Finder Suzanne Palmer (2019)
Book 1 of The Finder Chronicles – ebook - Driving the Deep Suzanne Palmer (2020)
Book 2 of The Finder Chronicles – ebook - The Scavenger Door Suzanne Palmer (2021)
Book 3 of The Finder Chronicles – ebook - The Oathbound Wizard Christopher Stasheff (1993)
Book 2 of A Wizard in Rhyme – ebook; reread - The Last Watch J. S. Dewes (2021)
Book 1 of The Divide – ebook; - Penric’s Demon Lois McMaster Bujold (2015)
Book 1 of Penric & Desdemona – ebook; reread - Penric and the Shaman Lois McMaster Bujold (2017)
Book 2 of Penric & Desdemona – ebook; reread
December (14)
- Penric’s Fox Lois McMaster Bujold (2018)
Book 5 of Penric & Desdemona – ebook; reread - Masquerade in Lodi Lois McMaster Bujold (2020)
Book 8 of Penric & Desdemona – ebook; reread - Penric’s Mission Lois McMaster Bujold (2017)
Book 3 of Penric & Desdemona – ebook; reread - Mira’s Last Dance Lois McMaster Bujold (2018)
Book 4 of Penric & Desdemona – ebook; reread - Prisoner of Limnos Lois McMaster Bujold (2019)
Book 6 of Penric & Desdemona – ebook; reread - The Orphans of Raspay Lois McMaster Bujold (2019)
Book 7 of Penric & Desdemona – ebook; reread - The Physicians of Vilnoc Lois McMaster Bujold (2020)
Book 9 of Penric & Desdemona – ebook; reread - The Assassins of Thasalon Lois McMaster Bujold (2021)
Book 10 of Penric & Desdemona – ebook; reread - Knot of Shadows Lois McMaster Bujold (2021)
Book 11 of Penric & Desdemona – ebook; - The Exiled Fleet J. S. Dewes (2021)
Book 2 of The Divide – ebook; - The Witch Doctor Christopher Stasheff (1994)
Book 3 of A Wizard in Rhyme – ebook; - The Devil You Know Kit Rocha (2021)
Book 2 of Mercenary Librarians – ebook; - Live Free or Die John Ringo (2010)
Book 1 of Troy Rising – ebook; reread - Citadel John Ringo (2011)
Book 2 of Troy Rising – ebook; reread
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Numéro dix
Quel est le nombre?
read 124
rereads 42
10.3 books/month
2.38 books/week
.34 books/day:
Books by women: 57
Oldest 1589 (- The Jew of Malta)
2021 18
2020 14
Unread? Not so much!
The ebook library sits at 966 these days. I imagine I will break 1000 sometime this year. Of those the dreaded unread count is now a much more reasonable number than a mere two years ago. Ah, but just what is that number? To answer that oh-so-pertinent question, let’s indulge in some logic, math and philosophy:
Unread according to the library software: 37 books
Classics and other books in the “backup, but not likely to ever read stack”: 13 books
Phryne Fisher: 12 books (see below)
Christopher Stasheff: 2 (see below)
37-13-12-2=10
Total Unread according to me: 10 books!
The logic
Well, I really have only had those “classics” in my library as emergency backups and I legit don’t foresee a future where I say to myself “Hey self, don’t you think we should ditch all those books you really want to read and just tackle Middlemarch?” So I think I can discount them.
The Phryne books? Well those are L’s. I just “borrowed” them in case I wanted to read them. Not my pile. 🙂 From last year:
I’ve only read 5 so far but that forced me to file the other 15 in my to-be-read ‘pile’ rather than dump them as I had originally intended.
I’ve read up to book 9 now.
As to the two Stasheff titles, well, it’s a conundrum and I think they will be going to the big digital trashcan in the sky if I can bring myself to do it.
Not aging well?
I read Her Majesty’s Wizard by Christopher Stasheff many years ago and loved it—the oldest version of it is a tattered paperback in my hardcopy collection, one that has been read many times since. I also read the sequel The Oathbound Wizard at some point but I never actually bought it and didn’t really remember much about it (which should have been a clue). This year I realized Stasheff had written another 3 follow-ups and decided to acquire them. A decision I think I regret.
Book 3 of a “Wizard in Rhyme” was The Witch Doctor and it was really, really disappointing. I don’t know if Stasheff was getting old and tired and just didn’t care or if he had fallen into some self-indulgent trap of believing that the philosophical questions raised in book one could be rehashed a bunch more times in what is essentially an light-hearted fantasy series without boring the crap out of his readers—but whatever the reason it really, really dragged. AND he actually repeated a complete scene from a previous book, just not-so-subtlety replacing a few words and plunking in the current protagonists. I mean WTF Christopher? I so have no incentive to read the next two.
But this brings up an interesting digital-age question. Deleting and ownership… since the bizarre, ridiculous and completely bogus rules surrounding ebooks means I don’t “technically” own any of my ebooks, throwing one away (aka deleting) is potentially a much more casual act than physically chucking a 300-page paper book in the garbage—something, fwiw, I have never done.
I’m just not sure I can do it though. And I am legally (and I admit morally) constrained from giving the book away which is what I would “normally” do (not that I have done that either…I think I am a bit of a hoarder…but I am guess a lot of you understand where I am coming from…at least when it comes to books…but at least I am not as bad as L…now there is someone with a problem…)…
Where was I? Oh, right. Well I guess only time will tell. Keep, chuck or give away? I guess I will let you know next year.
Novellas, profit and loss, and making money in publishing
Some interesting trends out there. If one pays any attention at all to John Scalzi, one can’t help but admire his very workmanlike approach to being a professional writer. He unabashedly admits he is in it to make a living — and as a result explores a lot of avenues writers have traditionally ignored. Among other things he has dabbled in serial publishing and audiobook-first publications. As a result he’s managed to net himself an unprecedented 3.4 million dollar, 10-year book contract and sell a lot of tv/movie rights. Nothing has been produced yet but time will tell. Good on him.
And novellas are a thing now. Lois McMaster Bujold, one of my favs, has been publishing the “Penric” novellas for a bunch of years now and as far as I can tell after the first one her agents took over the role of publisher. The first one’s metadata listed : Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform but lately it seems to be: Publisher: Spectrum Literary Agency, Inc.
She has written and released 10 novellas and one full-length novel since 2016 (all ebooks) which is pretty good output. Unlike some other “self-published” short works by mainstream writers I have encountered these seemed to be well-edited (or maybe she is just that good?) and professionally produced. And, like Scalzi, Subterranean Press have picked up the hardcopy/special edition rights.
This has resulted in Baen picking up the first ones and publishing them again in a couple of omnibus editions. This is a great business model and I hope she makes scads of money from this approach. My only real beef is that Amazon seems to be the distributor of choice and it forces me to buy and crack the azw files — which I would rather not be forced do, especially as Amazon might some day change their formats (again) and I won’t be able to do it anymore. I would truly hate to miss a Penric book…
Series Completion
It was good years for finishing serieses (sic). I bring this up because I won’t be finishing “The Divide” series by J. S. Dewes. That’s because since the first two books were released in 2021, I foolishly let myself get sucked into reading them, and they were good, maybe even great. But now I suspect she turned in an overly-large book one and the publisher decided to break it up into 2 books because Book 3 apparently isn’t due until 2023… oooh I hate waiting!
Finished!
Some of these I started decades ago and either didn’t realize there were sequels/prequels or couldn’t find them in a proper format. I also can’t guarantee that a few of them are “really” finished, but time, as they say, will tell…
Book 4 of An Ember in the Ashes – Sabaa Tahir
Book 5 of Dread Empire’s Fall – Walter Jon Williams
Book 3 of The Eternal Sky – Elizabeth Bear
Book 3 of Iskryne – Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear
Book 3 of Kingston Cycle C. L. Polk
Book 3 of Quantrill – Dean Ing
Book 9 of The Bandy Papers – Donald Jack
Book 3 of Protectorate – Megan E. O’Keefe
Book 4 of Hulzein – F. M.Busby
Book 3 of Chimera – Cate Glass
Book 3 of The Finder Chronicles – Suzanne Palmer
In the new year:
These two are on my list for January and should be done within spitting distance of this post:
Fonda Lee’s The Green Bone Saga: Jade Legacy
James Corey’s Expanse: Leviathan Falls
In conclusion
It was a great year for reading. I hope some of the books I listed appeal to you. There are very, very few I would hesitate to recommend. But if you want some…
- Silver in the Wood Emily Tesh (2019) drove me to the edge before redeeming itself. A great read.
- The Life of Buffalo Bill William F. Cody (1879) is worth it for the historical perspective, especially in these days where we wonder where we came up with some of our more idiotic beliefs. I also read The Life of Olaudah Equiano Olaudah Equiano (1789) at the same time and feel the same way.
- The Goblin Emperor Katherine Addison (2014) was one of those rare internet recommendations that turns out to be spot on.
- A Deadly Education Naomi Novik (2020) and the sequel The Last Graduate. Loved the first one and the second is a worthy successor. Beware the cliffhanger endings.
- The Last Watch J. S. Dewes (2021) As noted watch out for the missing book 3. It doesn’t really leave you hanging though.
Have a great 2022!
My fellow book counters: (Coming soon!) Dr. Leslie’s 2021 book and music list and the one, the only, the original, Earl J Woods’ Books I Read.
Links to previous years’ book count posts: