JANUARY THROUGH JUNE, 2025

CONTINUED FROM 2024 PART 2, 2024
Reminder: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases via the Amazon links included below – not that anyone has actually purchased a book from my links, (update, it looks like someone bought a book in 2023 and I didn’t notice) but that’s ok – this diary is really just for me – and for the person who bought that book. Thanks!
Book 1: Absolution (2024) by Jeff VanderMeer started my reading year. It’s Jeff’s return to the world of his Sountern Reach trilogy that began ten years ago with the book Annihilation, which was loosley adapted into a 2018 film of the same name. Like the first three books, Absolution has a dreamlike quality that really makes for quite a unique, in a good way, reading experience. The year of our Lords 2025 started with me at almost halfway through the book. Progress would have been quicker if I didn’t have a job. I finished it late on a Friday night, and that third and final novella was certainly quite different! I think I might have to reread the first book one day. (Read between December 24 & January 10 )
Book 2: Wind & Truth (2024) by Brandon Sanderson is the newly released fifth book in his Stormlight Archive, and this fifth book brings to a close the first half of the saga and the completion of the first of two story arcs. Soon after it’s November release, I saw nothing but super positive reviews from some of the BookTubers who keep up updated with all things SF and fantasy. And then a few weeks later, I came across some quite negative reviews, one by a reviewer I usually agree with. Hence, it was with a little trepidation that I started this mammoth 1,344 tome. The prologue didn’t do a lot for me, but then when we returned to the “present” and to the main characters, I just decided to forget about the opinions of others, and just dive in and swim until the end.
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