What I Read in 2022, H2
I’d wanted to write a Q3 update, but put it off long enough that it made more sense to write one for the end of the year, instead. I’ve still mostly been reading fantasy these past few months, starting with the first Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson (plus the accompanying novella, Mistborn: A Secret History.) Each book is a compelling page-turner — I devoured the trilogy much too quickly, but thankfully Sanderson is an insanely productive writer, haha. Well of Ascension, the second instalment, was probably my favourite of the three. I’m inexplicably drawn to stories that touch on the philosophy of leadership and governance, which is probably a big part of why I enjoyed Children of Dune and Zen And the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance so much…it also has one of the coolest opening lines I’ve ever read:
I write these words in steel, for anything not set in metal cannot be trusted.
I really loved working through Brandon’s annotations after finishing the trilogy, too. It looks like he provides this for a good number (almost all?) of his published work, and they provide such a cool behind-the-scenes view of world and story. Wish more authors would do a running commentary on their work.
Next, Mother of Learning, a progression fantasy series that wrapped up late last year (it’s also free to read, here). It was a recommendation from Chris Olah’s dating document — he’d followed it live as it was being updated, and describes it as being “full of deeply creative world building and unexpected wholesomeness”. Chris’ LSTM explainer was the one I pored over back when I was first learning about recurrent neural networks, and in recent years I’ve been coming to really appreciate his more personal reflections, especially those about family. But I digress! While situations in MoL often work out a little too easily in Zorian’s favour, I love the variety of worlds we’re introduced to (the buzzing Sulrothum, the aranea, Red Robe, Princess, the lich…) and the maturity of the writing. The naming conventions in the world were pretty great as well — Quatach-Ichl, for example. I enjoyed it a lot as a lighthearted read, just note that it’s a little long at 800k words.
Stephen King’s The Running Man was recommended in passing by a sweet booth owner at a pop-up marketplace. I think this was my first Stephen King novel? It was apparently written in about three days in the early 1980’s. I want to say it’s surprisingly ahead of its time with themes that echo modern dystopian fiction (killing games, insurmountable class divides, heavy pollution etc.) but I’m not super familiar with the battle royale genre so take that with a pinch of salt. It definitely reads like something written by a man — I can’t find a word other than gritty to describe it; the closing scene, for example, is very wince-inducing. I did like it on the whole, it’s fast and pulls no punches. While I kind of agree with the general sentiment that the novel just wasn’t long enough for deep characterisation, for what it tries to do — it’s great.
I picked up Miles: The Autobiography after reading an article about Blue Note Records, a label that focused on jazz (and I guess after taking NUS’ MUA3205 taught by Dr Tony this semester.) As the first longform piece related to jazz I’ve ever read, I thought it started really strong — hearing a lot about Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, places like Sugar Hill, as well as Miles’ fast-paced early career. I can see why some people would find the autobiography distasteful (the language and the way he talks about and treats women, for example). I did feel that the narrative kind of tapered off towards the end after Bitches Brew; too much of the same, and all his talk about abusing women was really…he writes about being apologetic, but when it happens again and again, what’s the takeaway, you know? On the whole, I think it was worth the read for me. I feel like I got an inside look at the jazz and bebop scene of the nineties, and learnt a little bit more about the names that define the genre. Would be curious to read a couple more books in the same vein and see how they shape up as a whole.
Finally, I wrapped up the year with Sunyi Dean’s The Book Eaters, a Tor reviewer recommendation. It’s a fairly short read with an interesting premise and characterisations slightly reminiscent of Worm, Devon especially. I found it impressive for a first effort —Sunyi is also a mother of two, and I think that perspective comes through really clearly in the novel. It’s one of those reads I wish were longer so we could spend more time with the characters and the history of the book eaters!