Weekly Roundup

Well, it’s been a very solid week for reading this week, with 3! books finished and 2 new ones started. I’ve posted a review of an excellent book, and also a introduction to my favourite reading challenge – r/fantasy Book Bingo. Read on to find out the details!

This Week’s Reading:

On Sunday, I finished The Girl and the Stars by Mark Lawrence. I thought it was good, but not great, and there were a couple of things about it that bugged me a bit. I still plan to read the sequel though, as I’ve heard it picks up a bit.

I also finished Piranese by Susanna Clarke. It was a fun, somewhat whimsical mystery, and I enjoyed reading it, but I wish certain elements had been explored more fully, and things moved quite quickly towards the end. I’ll probably only be doing a short review of that one.

On Tuesday, the latest Cradle book, Bloodline by Will Wight came out, and I devoured it within a couple of days. It’s not my favourite of the Cradle books, but it had some good moments, and is leading to a very interesting new phase of the story. These stories are generally just pure entertainment for me, and this one did deliver.

I’ve finally started Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky, which regular readers of this post series will recognise as one of the most frequently appearing books on my TBR that I hadn’t got to yet. It’s great, and I love being back in that universe, with its sentient spiders, and now octopodes, especially considering where he’s taking the story now. I should be finishing it within a day or two.

I’ve also started Jo Walton’s The Just City. It’s a very different sort of book, and at around 20% in, I’m still hedging my bets as to whether I’ll enjoy it enough. As usual for me, it’s normally around 30% when I have a good idea (unless the book comes out swinging from the get-go). I’ve also still been reading her non-fiction book What Makes This Book Great.

This Week’s Posts:

Tuesday: Book Bingo Journey – Introduction/Hub – Since the r/fantasy Book Bingo takes up a lot of my reading planning, I thought I’d introduce it for those who haven’t heard of it and give some thoughts. The post will also serve as a hub for any more book bingo content.

Thursday: Book Review: The Shadow Saint – Second book in the Black Iron Legacy series by Gareth Hanrahan. I loved this book, probably more than the first book The Gutter Prayer. The third book in the series (The Broken God) is out next month, so I’m hoping to get to it soon.

Next Week’s Posts:

Next week I intend to finally post a review of The Bone Shard Daughter, which I’ve been procrastinating on somewhat. I’m also pretty sure I’ll be posting my thoughts and plans regarding the first row in the r/fantasy Book Bingo. Ideally I’d also get another review (or two mini reviews) done for next week too, as they’re starting to pile up a little.

Next Week’s TBR Shortlist:

From last week’s shortlist, I’ve picked up Children of Ruin and The Just City, which is a new first – picking up the top two books in my TBR. I’ve been startlingly consistent with picking up top row TBR books over the past several weeks – will next week be the week I pick something unexpected?

Here’s a link to my last Weekly Roundup, if you wish to compare the two. The blank cover in the top left is an arc of She Who Became the Sun by Shelly Parker-Chan, while the blank cover in the middle right is The Broken God by Gareth Hanrahan. Last week, I said I wasn’t sure if I’d get to any books in my TBR because of Royal Assassin, but that clearly wasn’t the case. I do want to read that still, so maybe this will be the week I continue with it? Much longer in hold and I’ll have to stop pretending I’m currently reading it, which means it might make its way back to the TBR soon.

As usual, let me know if there’s anything there you’d recommend!