My reading list for Jan 2026:
1. 01/01/2026: 0351 “Paladins of Shannara, book 1, Allanon’s Quest” by Terry Brooks
2. 01/01/2026: 1638 “Paladins of Shannara, book 2, The Weapons Master’s Choice” by Terry Brooks
3. 01/01/2026: 1848 “Paladins of Shannara, book 3, The Black Irix” by Terry Brooks
4. 01/04/2026: 1715 “The Seventh Bride” by T. Kingfisher
5. 01/06/2026: 1844 “The Dark Legacy of Shannara, book 1, Wards of Faerie” by Terry Brooks
6. 01/09/2026: 2055 “Steaming Into series: book 8, Steaming into the West, More Tales of Western Steam” by Michael Clutterbuck
7. 01/11/2026: 1839 “The Dark Legacy of Shannara, book 2, Bloodfire Quest” by Terry Brooks
8. 01/15/2026: 1741 “The Dark Legacy of Shannara, book 3, Witch Wraith” by Terry Brooks
9. 01/20/2026: 0445 “The Elfstones of Shannara” by Terry Brooks (fourth read)
10. 01/30/2026: 0936 “Every Man Dies Alone” by Hans Fallada
It is extraordinarily rare, bordering on unknown, for me to have read so many books within a month. Admittedly, books 1-3 are rather short, but still... In honor of this likely unrepeated occasion, I have decided to pick a "favorite read of the month." It is, without question, Hans Fallada's "Every Man Dies Alone." I also had two soft DNF's, both by Terry Brooks, they being "The Sword of Shannara" and "The Wishsong of Shannara," books 1 and 3 of the original Shannara trilogy.
A bit of good news. I have solved my ultra-slow Kindle Paperwhite charge times by rigging a rubber band to hold the charging plug more securely in the Paperwhite's charging socket.
Full Version: What are you reading?
Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30
That is quite a month of reading you've had!
Busy indeed! Yay for rubber bands!
January 2026
It turns out my two favourite books of 2025, The Shadow of the Leviathan series by Robert Jackson Bennett, had been equally as well received by others. I discovered that book one, The Tainted Cup, had gone on to win both the Hugo Award and the World Fantasy Award for best novel. Always nice to be a little ahead of a trend! Considering I thought book two was possibly even better, think that could well be a challenger for awards this year.
I possibly even felt a little smug at my excellent taste. Fear not. That smugness is about to get well and truly popped.
It turns out that my quality nose maybe isn't quite as good as I thought. My first book of 2026 was a follow on book to a trilogy I'd read back in 2008.That had been The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks. And at the time I'd loved it. Even given it a spectacularly glowing endorsement here on these forums. The author states in his notes that this follow on it had taken him 15 years to write, published in 2023, as he's needed to grow and improve as a writer before he could tackle this.
Well. I hadn't read that initial trilogy since 2008. Or read anything else by the author since. But I found Night Angel Nemesis by Brent Weeks to be an overlong, sprawling, flawed mess. His original aim had been to write it as a 300 page book, rather than the almost 800 page book it became. I think it would have been vastly better. Twists and turns, on top of twists, with another few turns, almost as though without them the plot wouldn't make any sense and he thought he needed a few more twists and turns to gloss over some plot holes that are eventually sort of tied up (unsatisfyingly), all with one of the most whiny, self pitying "hero's" I've ever read. You know you're in trouble when you start praying that the villain will end the hero. Or in this case one of the many villains, due to the never ending twists. All of whom are slightly more interesting than the hero. Positives? It has some brilliant set pieces. That's it. A real disappointment, and honestly, I'm almost afraid to go back to the original trilogy in case it suffers the same problems. Maybe it's just my tastes have changed in those intervening 18 years. Or maybe it's just not very good. Anyway, this took me two weeks to read (unheard of for me) as it just felt like a total slog. Might need to find that recommendation from 2008 and delete it, because if it's anything like this I'd now be saying avoid like the plague. What's annoying is I think there is a good book hidden - really hidden - in there somewhere, like I say, some of the set pieces are brilliant, and you get a sense of what it could have been, but as published...
Next, a choice that I was certain would be more successful. The blurb alone had me sold:
Picture a wizard. Go ahead, close your eyes. There he is, see? Skinny old guy with a long straggly beard. The hat's a must, too, right? Big, floppy thing. Wouldn't want a simple steel helmet or something that might, you know, protect the part of him most needed for conjuring magical forces from being bashed in with a mace (or pretty much any household object).
Yep. Behold the mighty wizard.
Now open your eyes and let me show you what a real war mage looks like . . . but be warned: you're probably not going to like it, because we're violent, angry, dangerously broken people who sell our skills to the highest bidder and be damned to any moral or ethical considerations.
This book was Sebastien de Castell's The Malevolent Seven. And, after a slow start in the first couple of chapters, it became an absolute hoot. So much so, that my third book of the month became its sequel, The Malevolent Eight. Both are really enjoyable. Clever, witty, absolutely sparkling dialogue, and some fascinating characters. Recommend both of those. Though apparently my recommendations should be taken with a pinch of salt now. Even by me. And that's it for January.
It turns out my two favourite books of 2025, The Shadow of the Leviathan series by Robert Jackson Bennett, had been equally as well received by others. I discovered that book one, The Tainted Cup, had gone on to win both the Hugo Award and the World Fantasy Award for best novel. Always nice to be a little ahead of a trend! Considering I thought book two was possibly even better, think that could well be a challenger for awards this year.
I possibly even felt a little smug at my excellent taste. Fear not. That smugness is about to get well and truly popped.
It turns out that my quality nose maybe isn't quite as good as I thought. My first book of 2026 was a follow on book to a trilogy I'd read back in 2008.That had been The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks. And at the time I'd loved it. Even given it a spectacularly glowing endorsement here on these forums. The author states in his notes that this follow on it had taken him 15 years to write, published in 2023, as he's needed to grow and improve as a writer before he could tackle this.
Well. I hadn't read that initial trilogy since 2008. Or read anything else by the author since. But I found Night Angel Nemesis by Brent Weeks to be an overlong, sprawling, flawed mess. His original aim had been to write it as a 300 page book, rather than the almost 800 page book it became. I think it would have been vastly better. Twists and turns, on top of twists, with another few turns, almost as though without them the plot wouldn't make any sense and he thought he needed a few more twists and turns to gloss over some plot holes that are eventually sort of tied up (unsatisfyingly), all with one of the most whiny, self pitying "hero's" I've ever read. You know you're in trouble when you start praying that the villain will end the hero. Or in this case one of the many villains, due to the never ending twists. All of whom are slightly more interesting than the hero. Positives? It has some brilliant set pieces. That's it. A real disappointment, and honestly, I'm almost afraid to go back to the original trilogy in case it suffers the same problems. Maybe it's just my tastes have changed in those intervening 18 years. Or maybe it's just not very good. Anyway, this took me two weeks to read (unheard of for me) as it just felt like a total slog. Might need to find that recommendation from 2008 and delete it, because if it's anything like this I'd now be saying avoid like the plague. What's annoying is I think there is a good book hidden - really hidden - in there somewhere, like I say, some of the set pieces are brilliant, and you get a sense of what it could have been, but as published...
Next, a choice that I was certain would be more successful. The blurb alone had me sold:
Picture a wizard. Go ahead, close your eyes. There he is, see? Skinny old guy with a long straggly beard. The hat's a must, too, right? Big, floppy thing. Wouldn't want a simple steel helmet or something that might, you know, protect the part of him most needed for conjuring magical forces from being bashed in with a mace (or pretty much any household object).
Yep. Behold the mighty wizard.
Now open your eyes and let me show you what a real war mage looks like . . . but be warned: you're probably not going to like it, because we're violent, angry, dangerously broken people who sell our skills to the highest bidder and be damned to any moral or ethical considerations.
This book was Sebastien de Castell's The Malevolent Seven. And, after a slow start in the first couple of chapters, it became an absolute hoot. So much so, that my third book of the month became its sequel, The Malevolent Eight. Both are really enjoyable. Clever, witty, absolutely sparkling dialogue, and some fascinating characters. Recommend both of those. Though apparently my recommendations should be taken with a pinch of salt now. Even by me. And that's it for January.
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