Personal life: I am back from my travels - family was seen, babies were hoisted, toddlers were obeyed, much delicious cheese was eaten! Pokemon Go was a definite add to the experience - I even decided it was worth it to me to throw $5 at it to get myself some more game functions, and I had a fun time using it on walks, and making friends with it was an unexpected plus!
It was not much of a reading holiday, tho, as you'll see.
What I ReadingMarrying Efficiency to Ideals by thehoyden -
Untamed/ Mo Dao Zu Shi -
https://archiveofourown.org/works/66224968 - Have I sung the praises of thehoyden's writing? If not, I should. A really good author in a lot of fandoms, this piece of Untamed/ Mo Dao Zu Shi fanfic is self indulgent in the best ways - taking Meng Yao from canon, making a few minor circumstantial twists, and highlighting all the ways he could have been happy and wonderfully effective as the treasured spouse of a sect leader. I heartily enjoyed it.
King and Lionheart by the hoyden - Hockey RPF -
https://archiveofourown.org/works/1010348#main - In fact, I liked the Untamed fic enough that I have been going back thru thehoyden's past work and re-reading my faves! This one is basically my gold standard for the Perfectly Arranged Marriage fic - Sidney Crosby, alleged hockey robot, agrees to marry Evgeni Malkin so that he can come and play hockey in the NHL and bounce on his Russian contract. It's sweet and slow and kind to both of them, showing Sid as the kind of focused person who would, in fact, marry someone for hockey and never regret it, and Geno as the kind of brave idiot who would do it and then feel just a bit bad about it. It's charming and long and full of smut and deeply sweet.
I have read some shorter works by thehoyden, but since I usually limit my reviews to the novel-length stuff I have read, I will simply mention Letters from the Northern Continent (DS9, Garak/Bashir post-canon epistolary fic) is wonderful and takes the canon and just... gently tips it to a better direction.
A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett - I have not read all of Pratchett's work, and that is on purpose. I am rationing it. This is the second in the Tiffany Aching books, and involves compassion towards you enemies, even the teenage girls who are dicks, even the deathless monsters that want to devour you and leave only your worst parts. Solid work.
What I'm ReadingAnd Never Been Kissed by thehoyden and twentysomething - this is the horniest piece of work I have ever read. It's simply staggeringly horny, monumentally horny - this fic's horniness is magnificent and impressive, sublte and illuminating. I am blessed and comforted by the horniness in this fic.
Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky - reminds me that I never finished Derin Edala's Perfectly Normal Spaceship book. Nominee for a hugo, but I'm not far enough in to determine if it should win.
Deal with the Devil by Kit Roch - I can't put this book down fast enough. Book clubs sometimes must face that members have different tastes - this was suggested by a dear friend who likes to read books where the main characters are stalwartly good people who never hurt each other or do morally wrong things, even if they have a history that says they *absolutely should consider doing wrong things* because that is their ENTIRE career. But alas, this is an adventure without conflict. I will finish this book, I will allow it to pass over me, and in the end, only my 2 star review will remain.
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley - this book seems to have started from the very fanficy idea of, what if one of the crew of the lost Arctic expedition on The Terror was found and brought to modern London? And that's a good premise for a short story! But the book is not fleshed out quite enough around it. I'm only 40% in, I'm having a reasoanble amount of fun, I might be swayed! Nominee for a Hugo, should not win.
What I'll Read NextI'm coming to the end of this year's Hugos push, so I will try and read some of those books but I'm not going to push myself that much about it.
Book Club books planned
Lent by Jo Walton
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison
Space Opera ?
Monsters and Mainframes?