The Book Count 2026

[Greg]

The Incandescent by Emily Tesh

I really enjoyed Ms. Tesh's book, "Some Desperate Glory". Enjoyed it so much, I forgot I had read it and re-ordered it from the library. It was really fun Space Opera. In The Incandescent, Tesh goes for a modern fantasy novel set in a prep school in England. The school teaches magic but the twist for this book is that novel is told from the point of view of one of the school masters, Dr. Walden. She's also responsible for keeping the school safe from demon incursions. Kids practicing magic tends to draw in demons.

The book was good not great. The plot kept swerving into unexpected directions. But it felt in a couple of sections things weren't quite clear which made them confusing. It was a bit of muddle.

[Greg]

Out Law by Jim Butcher

A quicky from the Dresden Files universe. Dresden agrees to help former gangster Tripp turn his life around and go straight in repayment of a debt to mob boss of Chicago John Marcone. It's the usual cast of Butcher characters in abbreviated form. A nice appetizer that I needed to last longer but read through in a couple of hours. A good read for completists.

[Greg]

The Keeper by Tana French

More from the fictional Irish town of Ardnakelty. Cal Hooper has to stop the local Big Shot from basically stealing everyone's farms for a giant new data center. This comes about because of the death of a local girl under mysterious circumstances.

The books are starting to feel the same. All the same grudges percolating away. A certain meanness of spirit and underhanded dealing I'm not used to from Irish people. I do revel in hearing the slang and the dialect of the people but a lot of times the characterizations seem a bit off. And for these books, it's about the characters interacting rather than dealing with the mystery.

[Greg]

Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman

Dinniman takes a break from Dungeon Crawler Carl to talk about the colony planet New Sonora. Oliver is the fourth or fifth generation New Sonoran, an Earth Colony. Buy Earth has come a knocking and they want the planet for their own purposes. To do that, the Apex Corporation hosts a game where remotely piloted robots have come to New Sonora to wipe out the citizens in the name of putting down a terrorist uprising.

It's a bunch of battles between the settlers and the invaders interspersed with dialogue about rogue AI's and duplicitous corporate dealing. A lot of the book is problem solving and figuring out why New Sonora has been targeted in the first place. Plucky heroes against evil aggressors.