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The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson
I keep meaning to read more Sanderson. I think I've read Sanderson, but I'm not sure. I might have read the Mistborn stuff but I couldn't tell you the plot of the series at gunpoint. He also finished the Wheel of Time series which I was invested in for many years before the thing became so bloated with characters, I stopped caring.
Sanderson captured everyone's imagination or greed several years ago when he launched a kickstarter for four books he wrote secretly. It was the biggest Kickstarter ever. I wondered why those books were popular. The books have been released through the normal channels and The Frugal Wizard's Guide is one of them.
Man wakes up in a sort of Medieval England with no memory of how he got there or who he is. Scattered burn pages of a book surround him giving him some clue of his whereabouts, the titular Frugal Wizard's Guid. Turns out, you can buy your own dimension.
The memoryless man sets off to find out what's going. Adventure ensues as he meets the locals and discovers his powers.
Fun quick read. I enjoyed it. It was that oddity in today's society, a stand alone fantasy novel. Although in some of the notes, I guess the book kind of ties in to the Comere which is Sanderson's Universe of stories.
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The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson
His name is Nomad. I guess he is part of Sanderson' wider Cosmere Universe. Nomad can travel from planet to planet via Skipping based on much energy is in his body. He is on the run from a group of hunters who want to know where to find an artifact he used to own. Nomad gets caught up in the battles on this latest planet where the world revolves incredibly fast and you can't stay in the sun or you will be incinerated. There is a lot going on and there is a lot of action. It would have probably helped to have read more of the Cosmere books, but it was still enjoyable.
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Deep Silence by Jonathan Maberry
This is the book that ended the Joe Ledger DMS series before moving on to the next RTI series which started with Rage.
These books are starting to get very formulaic. We see the villains come up with their plot through flashbacks. We see Joe and Echo team come upon the plot and don't know what to do in the face of the catastrophe. They all get beat up and wounded and eventually they save the world. There is a lot of overlap in technologies used by the villains in previous books that the new villains find and learn to use. If you haven't read the previous books a lot of references will whiz by you.
But I like the formula. I am entertained by the characters and the weird mix of horror and military special ops.
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Once again I have checked out a book from the library I have already read. Thank you, Book Count for confirming this. I was about ten pages in thinking this seems very familiar.
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If only you kept a list..
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
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River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey was low-key fun. I think it is very early in their writing career. I’ll read the other novellas as they are not very long.
In the Tudor Period, Fencing Masters were classified in the Vagrancy Laws along with Actors, Gypsys, Vagabonds, Sturdy Rogues, and the owners of performing bears.
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Boy goes missing from camp in upstate New York and is never found. Ten years later, the same thing happens to the boy's sister. The story jumps back and forth between the two timelines of the boy, Bear, and his disappearance and then the disappearance of Barbara. It's all tragic full of terrible people. The only redeemable character is the brand new detective struggling to find Barbara. She is the first female in the unit and is living an unhappy life at home but at least she kind of knows what she is doing.
The notes of the story all seemed kind of typical, more of a gothic melodrama than a mystery you can puzzle out.
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All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker
I liked this one much more than The God of the Woods. Whitaker is a much better writer and the books comes across more lyrical than Moore's
Patches saves Misty from being abducted and gets abducted for his troubles. Patches best friend Saint, knows he's alive and will not give up the hunt for him. But that's just the beginning of the story. The abduction has consequences as it affects lives over the next twenty years in a lot of twisty ways. You never quite know where the book will go and what will happen. And the writing is really beautiful along the way.
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05-22-2025, 01:55 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-22-2025, 01:55 PM by Greg.)
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe
This book would have been better or at least more suspenseful if I hadn't heard the author describe the whole plot during a podcast.
But it is an interesting look at the Troubles in Northern Ireland during relatively modern history. The main take away was that Gerry Adams, despite his denials, was in the IRA and directed terror campaigns. Another take away is that people were pretty shitty on both sides.
The book is structured around the disappearance of single mother of ten Jean McConville in the 1970s from her flat. No word was ever given to what happened to her. The masked gunmen that took her told her kids that she would be back in a few hours. Twenty years later they were still waiting.
Reading this book felt a lot like homework at times.
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Relight my Fire by C.K. McDonnell
More adventures from the Stranger Times group. This time out people are experiencing magical powers using ecstasy. The editor has been given five days to find a missing man or he'll be sent to hell. It's all very witty and fast paced but there is a lot to keep track of from the earlier books.
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Red Side Story by Jasper Fforde
The sequel to Shades of Grey is here. Back to the land where your standing in society is based on well you see color. Edward and Jane continue their exploration of their damaged society and a quest for answers to all sorts of question. They start the book charged with murder. There are all sorts of plots and subplots as Edward and Jane continue to uncover mysteries about their strange world.
I enjoyed the book but I am tiring of books that are just versions of our own world many years in the future but for most of the book we aren't supposed to know that. The world is some other world all together, only it's our world in the end. I just feel it has been done too many times at this point.
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Midnight Black by Matt Greaney
The Gray Man is back and he's heading to Russia. At the end of the last novel, Court Gentry's true love and fellow assassin is captured and sent to Russia where she is presumably killed. But Court doesn't believe that and is doing everything in his power to find her and get her out.
I liked this one better than the last one. It felt more within the realm of possibility. The action sequences were good and there were definite personal stakes for Six. Plus, there were a lot of thinly veiled references to our current society. One of the people near where Gentry's true love might be being held is an imprisoned political rival to the president of Russia. Meanwhile, Russian society is kind of up in arms about the current conflict with Ukraine.
A good junk food book.
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A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
Bennett's world building is messed up in such a good way. It's the hallmark of all his works. We are back to the empire beset by Kaiju. This time Din and Ana are off to Yarrow to investigate the murder of a treasury person sent to Yarrow to discuss the absorption of Yarrow into the Empire. The book got more interesting as it went along. The solution to the first mystery happened really fast and was pretty simple, but there were questions which led to further mysteries. The whole story just kept getting weirder. And I liked it.
I will read a Bennett book as soon as it comes out.
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We Don't Know Ourselves by Fintan O'Toole
The subtitle for the book is: A Personal History of Modern Ireland
This was a rough book, peering deep into kind of the seamy side of Ireland since 1958 or so. It looks at the evolution of the Irish state since the War of Independence and the Civil War but really picks up steam when the author was born. Each chapter is a year and covers pretty much a single topic whether it's the church or corruption or emigration. It's not a very flattering portrait. I was really interested in the years that I was there to see what I missed. Hard to believe a teenage boy was blithely unaware of the world around him. The big story for my years was the arrival of the Pope and how me much continued the stranglehold the Catholic Church held on the morality of Ireland. But there was a lot of saying one thing and doing another in the Irish psyche. For instance, everyone was against abortion but they all turned a blind eye to the women who had to go to England to get one. I think my years were also when the Bishop of Galway had a mistress upon whom he fathered a child.
There weren't a lot of stories to make you feel proud. Even the Celtic Tiger era had a tremendous downside when it concluded. I'm glad I read it, but I'm not glad I read it.
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Never Flinch by Stephen King
Another Holly Gibney mystery. This time without the supernatural elements. There is a serial killer on the loose in Holly's town which is tangentially investigating. She has also been hired to bodyguard an author on tour who is being harassed by a stalker.
Big bits of author talk and AA meetings in this book. Write what you know I guess. It's a fairly good book. I think King's biggest strength is capturing the moment and being very topical.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm
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