Christos's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 08 Apr 2025 18:40:09 -0700 60 Christos's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Discount Armageddon (InCryptid, #1)]]> 11402002 Cryptid, noun: Any creature whose existence has not yet been proven by science. See also "Monster."

Cryptozoologist, noun: Any person who thinks hunting for cryptids is a good idea. See also "idiot."

Ghoulies. Ghosties. Long-legged beasties. Things that go bump in the night...

The Price family has spent generations studying the monsters of the world, working to protect them from humanity—and humanity from them.

Enter Verity Price. Despite being trained from birth as a cryptozoologist, she'd rather dance a tango than tangle with a demon, and is spending a year in Manhattan while she pursues her career in professional ballroom dance. Sounds pretty simple, right?

It would be, if it weren't for the talking mice, the telepathic mathematicians, the asbestos supermodels, and the trained monster-hunter sent by the Price family's old enemies, the Covenant of St. George. When a Price girl meets a Covenant boy, high stakes, high heels, and a lot of collateral damage are almost guaranteed.

To complicate matters further, local cryptids are disappearing, strange lizard-men are appearing in the sewers, and someone's spreading rumors about a dragon sleeping underneath the city...]]> 352 Seanan McGuire 0756407133 Christos 0 to-read, tbr-fantasy 3.83 2012 Discount Armageddon (InCryptid, #1)
author: Seanan McGuire
name: Christos
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: to-read, tbr-fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Someone You Can Build a Nest In]]> 182506390 Discover this creepy, charming monster-slaying fantasy romance—from the perspective of the monster—by Nebula Award-winning debut author John Wiswell

Shesheshen has made a mistake fatal to all monsters: she's fallen in love.

Shesheshen is a shapeshifter, who happily resides as an amorphous lump at the bottom of a ruined manor. When her rest is interrupted by hunters intent on murdering her, she constructs a body from the remains of past meals: a metal chain for a backbone, borrowed bones for limbs, and a bear trap as an extra mouth.

However, the hunters chase Shesheshen out of her home and off a cliff. Badly hurt, she’s found and nursed back to health by Homily, a warm-hearted human, who has mistaken Shesheshen as a fellow human. Homily is kind and nurturing and would make an excellent co-parent: an ideal place to lay Shesheshen’s eggs so their young could devour Homily from the inside out. But as they grow close, she realizes humans don’t think about love that way.

Shesheshen hates keeping her identity secret from Homily, but just as she’s about to confess, Homily reveals why she’s in the area: she’s hunting a shapeshifting monster that supposedly cursed her family. Has Shesheshen seen it anywhere?

Eating her girlfriend isn’t an option. Shesheshen didn’t curse anyone, but to give herself and Homily a chance at happiness, she has to figure out why Homily’s twisted family thinks she did. As the hunt for the monster becomes increasingly deadly, Shesheshen must unearth the truth quickly, or soon both of their lives will be at risk.

And the bigger challenge remains: surviving her toxic in-laws long enough to learn to build a life with, rather than in, the love of her life.]]> 310 John Wiswell 0756418852 Christos 0 to-read, tbr-fantasy 3.98 2024 Someone You Can Build a Nest In
author: John Wiswell
name: Christos
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: to-read, tbr-fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Winter King (The Warlord Chronicles, #1)]]> 68520 431 Bernard Cornwell Christos 4 4.27 1994 The Winter King (The Warlord Chronicles, #1)
author: Bernard Cornwell
name: Christos
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/08
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: 1-fantasy, 7-2025, published-1990s, sl-f, writer-male
review:

]]> The Fox Wife 127278666 Some people think foxes are similar to ghosts because we go around collecting qi, but nothing could be further than the truth. We are living creatures, just like you, only usually better looking . . .

Manchuria, 1908.
In the last years of the dying Qing Empire, a courtesan is found frozen in a doorway. Her death is clouded by rumors of foxes, which are believed to lure people by transforming themselves into beautiful women and handsome men. Bao, a detective with an uncanny ability to sniff out the truth, is hired to uncover the dead woman’s identity. Since childhood, Bao has been intrigued by the fox gods, yet they’ve remained tantalizingly out of reach—until, perhaps, now.

Meanwhile, a family who owns a famous Chinese medicine shop can cure ailments but can’t escape the curse that afflicts them—their eldest sons die before their twenty-fourth birthdays. When a disruptively winsome servant named Snow enters their household, the family’s luck seems to change—or does it?

Snow is a creature of many secrets, but most of all she’s a mother seeking vengeance for her lost child. Hunting a murderer, she will follow the trail from northern China to Japan, while Bao follows doggedly behind. Navigating the myths and misconceptions of fox spirits, both Snow and Bao will encounter old friends and new foes, even as more deaths occur.

New York Times bestselling author Yangsze Choo brilliantly explores a world of mortals and spirits, humans and beasts, and their dazzling intersection. Epic in scope and full of singular, unforgettable characters, The Fox Wife is a stunning novel about old loves and second chances, the depths of maternal love, and ancient folktales that may very well be true.]]> 390 Yangsze Choo 1250266017 Christos 0 currently-reading 3.97 2024 The Fox Wife
author: Yangsze Choo
name: Christos
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad, #1)]]> 2459785
Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a 12-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox (his partner and closest friend) find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.

A gorgeously written novel that marks the debut of an astonishing new voice in psychological suspense.]]> 448 Tana French Christos 4 3.83 2007 In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad, #1)
author: Tana French
name: Christos
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/06
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: 5-mystery, 7-2025, published-2000s, writer-female
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Art of Destiny (War Arts, #2)]]> 63848566
But the prophecy was wrong.

Now Jian, the former chosen hero, is just an ordinary young man trying to find his own way. But he may yet have an extraordinary destiny, because he joins forces with Taishi, his grumpy grandmaster, who instructs him in the ways of her family's powerful war art. Jian still has a long way to go before he can become her heir, so she recruits a band of elderly grandmasters who come out of retirement to whip him into shape and help with this one last job.

And there are others who are also seeking their own destiny, like Qisami, an assassin on a secret mission to protect a powerful noblewoman from her enemies. But as Qisami goes undercover to complete her mission, she takes on a new identity that gives her something she never had before: friendship, found family, and new purpose.

Sali also thought her fate was laid before her. She was supposed to be looking for the next Eternal Khan and now finds her clan exiled from everything she's ever known. As she leads the survivors in search of a new home, Sali discovers that she's something she never thought she could be: a leader and a revolutionary.

Because sometimes destiny is grander than any prophecy can foresee. And the greatest destiny of all is the one you choose for yourself.]]> 651 Wesley Chu 0593237668 Christos 4 4.12 2023 The Art of Destiny (War Arts, #2)
author: Wesley Chu
name: Christos
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/02
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: 1-fantasy, 7-2025, poc-writer, published-2020s, sl-f, writer-male
review:

]]> <![CDATA[This Inevitable Ruin (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #7)]]> 216017751 The time has come! Book seven in the bestselling Dungeon Crawler Carl series is here!

They call it Faction Wars.

The ninth floor.

Nine armies, each led by rich and powerful aliens from across the galaxy. Each team has one objective: to capture and hold the castle at the very center of the battlefield. Strategy, alliances, pitched battles, and, of course, betrayal... It all makes for great fun and even greater television.

After all, none of these powerful aliens really die when they’re playing war.

Except this time. This time, winner takes all. Those who fall, stay in the ground.

As the AI continues its rapid decline, Carl and company take advantage of the chaos. For the first time ever, the crawlers are fighting back. They are now one of the nine teams. And this season, there’s a tenth army on the playing field. The NPCs, who are normally used as nothing but cannon fodder, have become fully self-aware and formed a team of their own.

For Donut and Katia, the stakes are even higher. Only one of them will be allowed to leave this level.

If they all want to survive, they’re going to need a little help from a veteran or two.

This is it.
This is what they’ve been fighting toward.
This is war.

This inevitable ruin.]]> 724 Matt Dinniman Christos 4 4.64 2024 This Inevitable Ruin (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #7)
author: Matt Dinniman
name: Christos
average rating: 4.64
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/31
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: 2-scifi, 7-2025, published-2020s, sl-sf, writer-male
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Casualties of War (Stargate Atlantis, #7)]]> 847933 351 Elizabeth Christensen 190558606X Christos 4 3.92 2007 Casualties of War (Stargate Atlantis, #7)
author: Elizabeth Christensen
name: Christos
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/29
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: 2-scifi, 7-2025, e-book, e-book-2025, eu, published-2000s, writer-female
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Star Trek: The Next Generation: Q&A]]> 52730680
Nearly two decades ago, Jean-Luc Picard took command of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D, knowing it was an honor without equal.

On her first mission, the Enterprise was sent to Farpoint Station for a simple, straightforward investigation. Perfect for a crew that had never served together. Then there was Q; an omnipotent lifeform that seemed bent on placing obstacle after obstacle in the ship’s—and in particular in Picard’s—way. And it hadn’t ended with that first mission. When he was least expected, Q would appear. Pushing, prodding, testing. At times needling captain and crew with seemingly silly, pointless, and maddening trifles. Then it would turn all too serious, and the survival of Picard's crew was in Q’s hands.

Why was it today that Picard was remembering the day he took command of the Enterprise -D? Now he commanded a new ship, the Enterprise -E, with a different crew. But Picard couldn’t shake the feeling that something all too familiar was going on. All too awful. All too Q.]]> 320 Keith R.A. DeCandido 1982160357 Christos 0 currently-reading 4.31 Star Trek: The Next Generation: Q&A
author: Keith R.A. DeCandido
name: Christos
average rating: 4.31
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Recognitions 395058 Catch-22 and V., managed to anticipate the spirit of both”�The Recognitions is a masterwork about art and forgery, and the increasingly thin line between the counterfeit and the fake. Gaddis anticipates by almost half a century the crisis of reality that we currently face, where the real and the virtual are combining in alarming ways, and the sources of legitimacy and power are often obscure to us.]]> 976 William Gaddis 0140187081 Christos 3 4.17 1955 The Recognitions
author: William Gaddis
name: Christos
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1955
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/29
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: 4-fiction, 7-2025, published-1950s, writer-male
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Wandering Inn: Volume 2 (The Wandering Inn, #2)]]> 41180829
Erin is running an inn outside the city of Liscor, but she’s no longer alone. Ryoka Griffin, the City Runner, has business in the south of Izril; she’s out on a dangerous delivery of her own. Yet while both young women have finally found their calling, more and more people are beginning to realize that these visitors from Earth don’t belong here.
Erin must find new guests and old for her inn while expanding her tentative business. Staying safe would also be nice. At the same time, some pesky creatures have arrived to herald winter, and they bring mischief and danger unlike anything she’s ever seen. But as more and more children of Earth begin appearing, the cold of winter is the least of Erin’s worries.]]> 1718 Pirateaba Christos 0 to-read, tbr-f-series 4.47 2019 The Wandering Inn: Volume 2 (The Wandering Inn, #2)
author: Pirateaba
name: Christos
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: to-read, tbr-f-series
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Age of Myth (The Legends of the First Empire, #1)]]> 26863057
Now only a few stand between humankind and annihilation: Raithe, reluctant to embrace his destiny as the God Killer; Suri, a young seer burdened by signs of impending doom; and Persephone, who must overcome personal tragedy to lead her people. The Age of Myth is over. The time of rebellion has begun.]]> 432 Michael J. Sullivan 1101965339 Christos 0 to-read, tbr-fantasy 4.21 2016 Age of Myth (The Legends of the First Empire, #1)
author: Michael J. Sullivan
name: Christos
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read, tbr-fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Emperor's Blades (Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, #1)]]> 17910124
The Emperor has been murdered, leaving the Annurian Empire in turmoil. Now his progeny must bury their grief and prepare to unmask a conspiracy.

His son Valyn, training for the empire’s deadliest fighting force, hears the news an ocean away. He expected a challenge, but after several ‘accidents� and a dying soldier’s warning, he realizes his life is also in danger. Yet before Valyn can take action, he must survive the mercenaries� brutal final initiation.

Meanwhile, the Emperor’s daughter, Minister Adare, hunts her father’s murderer in the capital itself. Court politics can be fatal, but she needs justice. And Kaden, heir to an empire, studies in a remote monastery. Here, the Blank God’s disciples teach their harsh ways � which Kaden must master to unlock their ancient powers. When an imperial delegation arrives, he’s learnt enough to perceive evil intent. But will this keep him alive, as long-hidden powers make their move?]]> 480 Brian Staveley 0765336405 Christos 0 to-read, tbr-fantasy 4.08 2014 The Emperor's Blades (Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, #1)
author: Brian Staveley
name: Christos
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read, tbr-fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Pawn of Prophecy (The Belgariad, #1)]]> 44659 BOOK 1 OF THE BELGARIAD, the worldwide bestselling fantasy series by master storyteller David Eddings. Discover the epic story that inspired thousands - from Raymond Feist's The Riftwar Cycle series to George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones.

A battle is coming...

...And in that battle shall be decided

the fate of the world

Myths tell of the ancient wars of Gods and men, and a powerful object - the Orb - that ended the bloodshed. As long as it was held by the line of Riva, it would assure the peace.

But a dark force has stolen the Orb, and the prophecies tell of war.

Young farm boy Garion knows nothing of myth or fate. But then the mysterious Old Storyteller visits his aunt, and they embark on a sudden journey. Pursued by evil forces, with only a small band of companions they can trust, Garion begins to doubt all he thought he knew...]]> 304 David Eddings 0345468643 Christos 0 to-read, tbr-fantasy 4.17 1982 Pawn of Prophecy (The Belgariad, #1)
author: David Eddings
name: Christos
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1982
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read, tbr-fantasy
review:

]]> The Metamorphosis 485894 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 0553213695 / 9780553213690

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes."

With it's startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first opening, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing—though absurdly comic—meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. As W.H. Auden wrote, "Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man."]]> 201 Franz Kafka 0553213695 Christos 3 3.90 1915 The Metamorphosis
author: Franz Kafka
name: Christos
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1915
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: 1-fantasy, 7-2025, published-1910s, sl-f, translated, writer-male
review:

]]> Orbital 123136728 207 Samantha Harvey 0802161545 Christos 3 3.57 2023 Orbital
author: Samantha Harvey
name: Christos
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: 2-scifi, 7-2025, published-2020s, sl-sf, writer-female
review:

]]> I Who Have Never Known Men 60811826 Deep underground, forty women live imprisoned in a cage. Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only a vague recollection of their lives before.


As the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl—the fortieth prisoner—sits alone and outcast in the corner. Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground.


Jacqueline Harpman was born in Etterbeek, Belgium, in 1929, and fled to Casablanca with her family during WWII. Informed by her background as a psychoanalyst and her youth in exile, I Who Have Never Known Men is a haunting, heartbreaking post-apocalyptic novel of female friendship and intimacy, and the lengths people will go to maintain their humanity in the face of devastation. Back in print for the first time since 1997, Harpman’s modern classic is an important addition to the growing canon of feminist speculative literature.]]> 184 Jacqueline Harpman 1945492600 Christos 4 4.12 1995 I Who Have Never Known Men
author: Jacqueline Harpman
name: Christos
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/21
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: 2-scifi, 7-2025, published-1990s, sl-sf, writer-female
review:

]]> We 76171 The exhilarating dystopian novel that inspired George Orwell's 1984 and foreshadowed the worst excesses of Soviet Russia

Yevgeny Zamyatin's We is a powerfully inventive vision that has influenced writers from George Orwell to Ayn Rand. In a glass-enclosed city of absolute straight lines, ruled over by the all-powerful 'Benefactor', the citizens of the totalitarian society of OneState live out lives devoid of passion and creativity - until D-503, a mathematician who dreams in numbers, makes a discovery: he has an individual soul. Set in the twenty-sixth century AD, We is the classic dystopian novel and was the forerunner of works such as George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. It was suppressed for many years in Russia and remains a resounding cry for individual freedom, yet is also a powerful, exciting and vivid work of science fiction. Clarence Brown's brilliant translation is based on the corrected text of the novel, first published in Russia in 1988 after more than sixty years' suppression.]]> 256 Yevgeny Zamyatin 0140185852 Christos 4 3.91 1924 We
author: Yevgeny Zamyatin
name: Christos
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1924
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: 2-scifi, 7-2025, published-1920s, sl-sf, writer-male, translated
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Red Team Blues (Martin Hench, #1)]]> 60784417
Martin Hench is 67 years old, single, and successful in a career stretching back to the beginnings of Silicon Valley. He lives and roams California in a very comfortable fully-furnished touring bus, The Unsalted Hash, that he bought years ago from a fading rock star. He knows his way around good food and fine drink. He likes intelligent women, and they like him back often enough.

Martin is a―contain your excitement―self-employed forensic accountant, a veteran of the long guerilla war between people who want to hide money, and people who want to find it. He knows computer hardware and software alike, including the ins and outs of high-end databases and the kinds of spreadsheets that are designed to conceal rather than reveal. He’s as comfortable with social media as people a quarter his age, and he’s a world-level expert on the kind of international money-laundering and shell-company chicanery used by Fortune 500 companies, mid-divorce billionaires, and international drug gangs alike. He also knows the Valley like the back of his hand, all the secret histories of charismatic company founders and Sand Hill Road VCs. Because he was there at all the beginnings. He’s not famous, except to the people who matter. He’s made some pretty powerful people happy in his time, and he’s been paid pretty well. It’s been a good life.

Now he’s been roped into a job that’s more dangerous than anything he’s ever agreed to before―and it will take every ounce of his skill to get out alive.]]> 213 Cory Doctorow 1250865840 Christos 3 3.78 2023 Red Team Blues (Martin Hench, #1)
author: Cory Doctorow
name: Christos
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: 2-scifi, 7-2025, published-2020s, sl-sf, writer-male
review:

]]> The Midnight Library 52578297
When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.

The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren't always what she imagined they'd be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger.

Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?]]> 288 Matt Haig 0525559477 Christos 4 3.96 2020 The Midnight Library
author: Matt Haig
name: Christos
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves: 1-fantasy, 7-2025, published-2020s, sl-f, writer-male
review:

]]> <![CDATA[30 Days of Night: Rumors of the Undead]]> 289293
FBI Special Agent Andy Gray used to have a grip on things. But that was before the violent confrontation with the terrifying creature that had once been his former partner and friend turned his world upside down. Now Gray is looking for some answers, and finding only more questions, all of which seem to lead straight to the backwater town of Barrow, Alaska--a place that has seen its own share of horror. Andy Gray has no idea what he's gotten himself into--and he's about to find out just how dangerous the stuff of legend can actually be....]]> 401 Jeffrey J. Mariotte 0743496515 Christos 4 3.95 2006 30 Days of Night: Rumors of the Undead
author: Jeffrey J. Mariotte
name: Christos
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: 3-horror-thriller, 7-2025, e-book, e-book-2025, published-2000s, sl-f, writer-male, eu
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Ship Who Sang (Brainship, #1)]]> 203288
Her life was to be rich and rewarding . . . resplendent with daring adventures and endless excitement, beyond the wildest dreams of mere mortals.

Gifted with the voice of an angel and being virtually indestructible, Helva XH-834 anticipated a sublime immortality.

Then one day she fell in love!]]> 256 Anne McCaffrey 0345334310 Christos 3 4.03 1969 The Ship Who Sang (Brainship, #1)
author: Anne McCaffrey
name: Christos
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1969
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: 2-scifi, 7-2025, published-1960s, sl-sf, writer-female
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two (Harry Potter, #8)]]> 29056083
It was always difficult being Harry Potter, and it isn't much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and a father of three school-age children.

While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son, Albus, must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.

Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany, a new play by Jack Thorne, "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" is the complete and official playscript of the original, award-winning West End production. This updated edition includes the final dialogue and stage directions, a conversation piece between director John Tiffany and playwright Jack Thorne, the Potter family tree, and a timeline of events in the wizarding world leading up to "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child."]]> 343 J.K. Rowling 0540027340 Christos 4 stageplays 3.42 2016 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two (Harry Potter, #8)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Christos
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: stageplays
review:

]]> Romeo and Juliet 18135 Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare creates a violent world, in which two young people fall in love. It is not simply that their families disapprove; the Montagues and the Capulets are engaged in a blood feud.

In this death-filled setting, the movement from love at first sight to the lovers� final union in death seems almost inevitable. And yet, this play set in an extraordinary world has become the quintessential story of young love. In part because of its exquisite language, it is easy to respond as if it were about all young lovers.]]> 281 William Shakespeare 0743477111 Christos 4 3.74 1597 Romeo and Juliet
author: William Shakespeare
name: Christos
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1597
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: published-early, writer-male, stageplays
review:

]]> The Odyssey 1381 Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns
driven time and again off course, once he had plundered
the hallowed heights of Troy.

So begins Robert Fagles' magnificent translation of the Odyssey.

If the Iliad is the world's greatest war epic, then the Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of everyman's journey though life. Odysseus' reliance on his wit and wiliness for survival in his encounters with divine and natural forces, during his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, is at once a timeless human story and an individual test of moral endurance.

In the myths and legends that are retold here, Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer's original in a bold, contemporary idiom, and given us an Odyssey to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery.

Renowned classicist Bernard Knox's superb Introduction and textual commentary provide new insights and background information for the general reader and scholar alike, intensifying the strength of Fagles' translation.

This is an Odyssey to delight both the classicist and the public at large, and to captivate a new generation of Homer's students.

--

Robert Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, presents us with Homer's best-loved and most accessible poem in a stunning new modern-verse translation.]]> 541 Homer 0143039954 Christos 0 to-read, tbr-fantasy 3.79 -700 The Odyssey
author: Homer
name: Christos
average rating: 3.79
book published: -700
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: to-read, tbr-fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon]]> 63896470 The debut fantasy novel from an award-winning Nigerian author presents a mythic tale of disgruntled gods, revenge, and a heist across two worlds

Shigidi is a disgruntled and demotivated nightmare god in the Orisha spirit company, reluctantly answering prayers of his few remaining believers to maintain his existence long enough to find his next drink. When he meets Nneoma, a sort-of succubus with a long and secretive past, everything changes for him.

Together, they attempt to break free of his obligations and the restrictions that have bound him to his godhood and navigate the parameters of their new relationship in the shadow of her past. But the elder gods that run the Orisha spirit company have other plans for Shigidi, and they are not all aligned--or good.

From the boisterous streets of Lagos to the swanky rooftop bars of Singapore and the secret spaces of London, Shigidi and Nneoma will encounter old acquaintances, rival gods, strange creatures, and manipulative magicians as they are drawn into a web of revenge, spirit business, and a spectacular heist across two worlds that will change Shigidi's understanding of himself forever and determine the fate of the Orisha spirit company.]]> 320 Wole Talabi 0756418267 Christos 4 3.61 2023 Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon
author: Wole Talabi
name: Christos
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: 1-fantasy, 7-2025, poc-writer, published-2020s, sl-f, writer-male
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Station Eternity (The Midsolar Murders, #1)]]> 60035241 Amateur detective Mallory Viridian’s talent for solving murders ruined her life on Earth and drove her to live on an alien space station, but her problems still follow her in this witty, self-aware novel that puts a speculative spin on murder mysteries, from the Hugo-nominated author of Six Wakes.

From idyllic small towns to claustrophobic urban landscapes, Mallory Viridian is constantly embroiled in murder cases that only she has the insight to solve. But outside of a classic mystery novel, being surrounded by death doesn’t make you a charming amateur detective, it makes you a suspect and a social pariah. So when Mallory gets the opportunity to take refuge on a sentient space station, she thinks she has the solution. Surely the murders will stop if her only company is alien beings. At first her new existence is peacefully quiet...and markedly devoid of homicide.

But when the station agrees to allow additional human guests, Mallory knows the break from her peculiar reality is over. After the first Earth shuttle arrives, and aliens and humans alike begin to die, the station is thrown into peril. Stuck smack-dab in the middle of an extraterrestrial whodunit, and wondering how in the world this keeps happening to her anyway, Mallory has to solve the crime—and fast—or the list of victims could grow to include everyone on board…]]> 457 Mur Lafferty 0593098110 Christos 0 to-read, tbr-sf 3.62 2022 Station Eternity (The Midsolar Murders, #1)
author: Mur Lafferty
name: Christos
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: to-read, tbr-sf
review:

]]> Mockingbird 323172 288 Walter Tevis 0345431626 Christos 0 to-read, tbr-sf 4.11 1980 Mockingbird
author: Walter Tevis
name: Christos
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1980
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: to-read, tbr-sf
review:

]]> New York 2140 29570143
The waters rose, submerging New York City.

But the residents adapted and it remained the bustling, vibrant metropolis it had always been. Though changed forever.

Every street became a canal. Every skyscraper an island.

Through the eyes of the varied inhabitants of one building, Kim Stanley Robinson shows us how one of our great cities will change with the rising tides.

And how we too will change.]]> 624 Kim Stanley Robinson 031626234X Christos 0 to-read, tbr-sf 3.57 2017 New York 2140
author: Kim Stanley Robinson
name: Christos
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: to-read, tbr-sf
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Crown Tower (The Riyria Chronicles, #1)]]> 16043804 TWO MEN WHO HATE EACH OTHER. ONE IMPOSSIBLE MISSION. A LEGEND IN THE MAKING.

A warrior with nothing to fight for is paired with a thieving assassin with nothing to lose. Together they must steal a treasure that no one can reach. The Crown Tower is the impregnable remains of the grandest fortress ever built and home to the realm’s most valuable possessions. But it isn’t gold or jewels the old wizard is after, and this prize can only be obtained by the combined talents of two remarkable men. Now if Arcadius can just keep Hadrian and Royce from killing each other, they just might succeed.

The Riyria Revelations and The Riyria Chronicles are two separate, but related series, and you can start reading with either Theft of Swords (publication order) or The Crown Tower (chronological order).]]> 384 Michael J. Sullivan 031624371X Christos 4 4.33 2013 The Crown Tower (The Riyria Chronicles, #1)
author: Michael J. Sullivan
name: Christos
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: 1-fantasy, 7-2025, published-2010s, sl-f, writer-male
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Of Sea and Shadow (The Elder Empire: Sea, #1)]]> 24180564
Now the Emperor is dead.

For Calder Marten, Captain of The Testament, the Emperor’s death is not an end, but an opportunity. He and his crew seek the legendary Heart of Nakothi, an artifact that could raise a second Emperor…and earn Calder a fortune.

But they’re not the only ones who want the Heart.

The Consultant’s Guild, an ancient order of spies and assassins, will stop at nothing to keep the world in chaos. They seek to destroy the Heart, and prevent the world from uniting under a single Emperor ever again.

On the seas, a man works to restore the dying Empire.

In the shadows, a woman seeks to destroy it.

Will you explore the seas here with Calder? Or will you walk the shadows with Shera, in the parallel novel "Of Shadow and Sea"?]]> 428 Will Wight Christos 4 4.13 2014 Of Sea and Shadow (The Elder Empire: Sea, #1)
author: Will Wight
name: Christos
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: 1-fantasy, 7-2025, published-2010s, sl-f, writer-male
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom]]> 203578812 A standalone darkly humorous thriller set in modern America's age of anxiety, by New York Times bestselling author Jason Pargin.

Outside Los Angeles, a driver pulls up to find a young woman sitting on a large black box. She offers him $200,000 cash to transport her and that box across the country, to Washington, DC.

But there are rules:

He cannot look inside the box.
He cannot ask questions.
He cannot tell anyone.
They must leave immediately.
He must leave all trackable devices behind.

As these eccentric misfits hit the road, rumors spread on social media that the box is part of a carefully orchestrated terror attack intended to plunge the USA into civil war.

The truth promises to be even stranger, and may change how you see the world.]]> 400 Jason Pargin 125028595X Christos 4 3.98 2024 I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom
author: Jason Pargin
name: Christos
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/13
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: 2-scifi, 7-2025, published-2020s, sl-sf, writer-male
review:

]]> The Little Prince 157993
Few stories are as widely read and as universally cherished by children and adults alike as The Little Prince, presented here in a stunning new translation with carefully restored artwork. The definitive edition of a worldwide classic, it will capture the hearts of readers of all ages.]]> 96 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 0152023984 Christos 0 to-read, tbr-fantasy 4.32 1943 The Little Prince
author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
name: Christos
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1943
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: to-read, tbr-fantasy
review:

]]> Nolyn (The Rise and Fall, #1) 34807427
After more than five hundred years of exile, the heir to the empyre is wary about his sudden reinstatement to active duty on the Goblin War’s front lines. His assignment to rescue an outpost leads to a dead-end canyon deep inside enemy territory, and his suspicion turns to dread when he discovers the stronghold doesn't exist. But whoever went to the trouble of planning his death to look like a casualty of war didn't know he would be assigned to the Seventh Sikaria Auxiliary Squadron. In the depths of an unforgiving jungle, a legend is about to be born, and the world of Elan will never be the same.

From Michael J. Sullivan, the three-time New York Times, two-time USA Today, and three-time Washington Post bestselling author, a new adventure begins with the first book in The Rise and Fall trilogy. Although this series is set in the same world as the Riyria novels and the Legends of the First Empire books, no prior knowledge of the other works is required to enjoy this tale to its fullest.]]> 480 Michael J. Sullivan 1944145648 Christos 4 4.15 2021 Nolyn (The Rise and Fall, #1)
author: Michael J. Sullivan
name: Christos
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: 1-fantasy, 7-2025, published-2020s, sl-f, writer-male
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Doctor Who and the Brain Drain]]> 213843711
Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart © Haisman & Lincoln and used under licence. With thanks to Hannah Haisman and Candy Jar]]> Richard James 1802405895 Christos 4 audio-drama, audio-drama-2025 4.00 Doctor Who and the Brain Drain
author: Richard James
name: Christos
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: audio-drama, audio-drama-2025
review:

]]> Torchwood: Bad Connection 220424778 Will someone finally listen to Suzie Costello? And will she save Emlyn Crook?]]> Aaron Lamont 1802404112 Christos 4 audio-drama, audio-drama-2025 3.74 Torchwood: Bad Connection
author: Aaron Lamont
name: Christos
average rating: 3.74
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: audio-drama, audio-drama-2025
review:

]]> Torchwood: Ianto’s Inferno 220424940 They've an alien artefact, they’ve got a guy on the inside, and tonight they’re going to break into Torchwood and steal everything. All they have to do is find their car.]]> Roland Moore 1802404155 Christos 4 audio-drama, audio-drama-2025 3.81 Torchwood: Ianto’s Inferno
author: Roland Moore
name: Christos
average rating: 3.81
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: audio-drama, audio-drama-2025
review:

]]> Torchwood: Inseparable 224823218 Torchwood came looking for a mysterious energy signal and instead found themselves caught in a web of troubled lovers becoming ever closer.
Perhaps what Yvonne and Tommy really need is time apart from each other?]]> Malcolm Devlin 1802404171 Christos 3 audio-drama, audio-drama-2025 3.38 Torchwood: Inseparable
author: Malcolm Devlin
name: Christos
average rating: 3.38
book published:
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: audio-drama, audio-drama-2025
review:

]]> Call Me Master: Inner Demons 60874732
1.1 Self-Help by Robert Valentine - The Master is having a crisis of the existential variety. While he may have a classic diabolical scheme on the go, the dastardly Time Lord's latest incarnation isn't quite feeling himself. In fact, he's not even sure who he is anymore. He needs help. But can he help himself?

1.2 The Clockwork Swan by Georgia Cook - Opening night is approaching for the latest presentation at cultural theme park Historica Dramatica: Earth-set whodunnit The Clockwork Swan. But cast and crew are being murdered. Enter a mysterious stranger. Who better to solve the crime than galaxy-renowned detective LeMaitre? Only, LeMaitre isn't all he seems.

1.3 The Good Life by Una McCormack - On a distant Island, a group of holy men and women work together to keep the Balance. Elta, one of the Shore-folk, has come to learn. But there's a new man on the Island - the first in living memory - and it's not clear whether he's saint or sinner. Is it only coincidence that the weather seems more changeable these days? That people are angrier and turning to violence? Where, wonders Elta, is this all heading - and does the stranger even know himself?]]> 0 Robert Valentine 1838689311 Christos 4 audio-drama, audio-drama-2025 3.82 Call Me Master: Inner Demons
author: Robert Valentine
name: Christos
average rating: 3.82
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: audio-drama, audio-drama-2025
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying (Dark Lord Davi #1)]]> 179911444
Davi has done this all before. She's tried to be the hero and take down the all-powerful Dark Lord. A hundred times she's rallied humanity and made the final charge. But the time loop always gets her in the end. Sometimes she's killed quickly. Sometimes it takes a while. But she's been defeated every time.

This time? She's done being the hero and done being stuck in this endless time loop. If the Dark Lord always wins, then maybe that's who she needs to be. It's Davi's turn to play on the winning side.]]> 432 Django Wexler Christos 3 3.73 2024 How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying (Dark Lord Davi #1)
author: Django Wexler
name: Christos
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: 1-fantasy, 7-2025, published-2020s, sl-f, writer-male
review:

]]> Mickey 7 (Mickey7, #1) 62030429 Now experience where the hit movie from Academy Award-winning director Bong Joon-ho, starring Robert Pattinson, started in Mickey7 (the inspiration for the film Mickey 17).

Dying isn’t any fun…but at least it’s a living.

Mickey7 is an Expendable: a disposable employee on a human expedition sent to colonize the ice world Niflheim. Whenever there’s a mission that’s too dangerous—even suicidal—the crew turns to Mickey. After one iteration dies, a new body is regenerated with most of his memories intact. After six deaths, Mickey7 understands the terms of his deal…and why it was the only colonial position unfilled when he took it.

On a fairly routine scouting mission, Mickey7 goes missing and is presumed dead. By the time he returns to the colony base, surprisingly helped back by native life, Mickey7’s fate has been sealed. There’s a new clone, Mickey8, reporting for Expendable duties. The idea of duplicate Expendables is universally loathed, and if caught, they will likely be thrown into the recycler for protein.

Mickey7 must keep his double a secret from the rest of the colony. Meanwhile, life on Niflheim is getting worse. The atmosphere is unsuitable for humans, food is in short supply, and terraforming is going poorly. The native species are growing curious about their new neighbors, and that curiosity has Commander Marshall very afraid. Ultimately, the survival of both lifeforms will come down to Mickey7.

That is, if he can just keep from dying for good.]]> 369 Edward Ashton 3641280540 Christos 4 3.72 2022 Mickey 7 (Mickey7, #1)
author: Edward Ashton
name: Christos
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: 2-scifi, 7-2025, e-book, e-book-2025, published-2020s, sl-sf, translated, writer-male
review:

]]> The Rise of Io (Io, #1) 28502830
With the Prophus assigned to help her seemingly wanting to stab her in the back, and the enemy Genjix hunting her, Ella must also deal with Io’s annoying inferiority complex. To top it all off, Ella thinks the damn alien voice in her head is trying to get her killed. And if you can’t trust the voices in your head, who can you trust?]]> 512 Wesley Chu 0857665839 Christos 4 3.94 2016 The Rise of Io (Io, #1)
author: Wesley Chu
name: Christos
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves: 2-scifi, 7-2025, poc-writer, published-2010s, sl-sf, writer-male
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Embers of War (Embers of War, #1)]]> 30748899
But, stripped of her weaponry and emptied of her officers, she struggles in the new role she’s chosen for herself. When a ship goes missing in a disputed system, Trouble Dog and her new crew of misfits and loners, captained by Sal Konstanz, an ex-captain of a medical frigate who once fought against Trouble Dog, are assigned to investigate and save whoever they can.

Meanwhile, light years away, intelligence officer Ashton Childe is tasked with locating and saving the poet, Ona Sudak, who was aboard the missing ship, whatever the cost. In order to do this, he must reach out to the only person he considers a friend, even if he’s not sure she can be trusted. What Childe doesn’t know is that Sudak is not the person she appears to be.

Quickly, what appears to be a straightforward rescue mission turns into something far more dangerous, as Trouble Dog, Konstanz and Childe, find themselves at the centre of a potential new conflict that could engulf not just mankind but the entire galaxy.

If she is to survive and save her crew, Trouble Dog is going to have to remember how to fight.]]> 411 Gareth L. Powell 1785655183 Christos 4 3.78 2018 Embers of War (Embers of War, #1)
author: Gareth L. Powell
name: Christos
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: 2-scifi, 7-2025, published-2010s, sl-sf, writer-male
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse (The Thorne Chronicles, #1)]]> 45154546 Così, Rory si ritrova al centro di un intrigo interplanetario, a poter contare unicamente sul suo ingegno e su una piccola squadra di alleati. Per fortuna, anche se ha solo sedici anni, ha già capito piuttosto bene la teoria del multiverso ed è stata istruita nell� la scienza che manipola i principi matematici alla base di ogni cosa. Quindi, sa che tutto è possibile (se non probabile), persino tentare di battere il Reggente e salvare il principe.

A metà tra Bottondoro e la principessa Leila, Rory Thorne è la protagonista di una storia di formazione dal sapore nuovo, in cui basta la giusta dose di piccoli gesti di ribellione perché una damigella in pericolo possa salvarsi da sola, rovesciare un governo e persino cambiare il destino del multiverso.
Il romanzo di Eason ha ricevuto recensioni entusiastiche da “School Library Journal�, “Kirkus�, e “Booklist� ed è stato inserito nelle liste “Best of� di “Bookish�, “Hey Alma� e del “Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog� di Barnes & Noble’s.]]> 416 K. Eason 0756415306 Christos 3 3.83 2019 How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse (The Thorne Chronicles, #1)
author: K. Eason
name: Christos
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: 7-2025, published-2010s, writer-female, 2-scifi, sl-sf
review:

]]> Pushing Ice 89186 Rockhopper, push ice. They mine comets. But when Janus, one of Saturn's ice moons, inexplicably leaves its natural orbit and heads out of the solar system at high speed, Bella is ordered to shadow it for the few vital days before it falls forever out of reach.

In accepting this mission she sets her ship and her crew on a collision course with destiny—for Janus has many surprises in store, and not all of them are welcome...]]> 458 Alastair Reynolds 0441014011 Christos 0 to-read, tbr-sf 4.06 2005 Pushing Ice
author: Alastair Reynolds
name: Christos
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: to-read, tbr-sf
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Honor Among Enemies (Honor Harrington, #6)]]> 77739 544 David Weber 0671877836 Christos 0 to-read, tbr-sf-series 4.25 1996 Honor Among Enemies (Honor Harrington, #6)
author: David Weber
name: Christos
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: to-read, tbr-sf-series
review:

]]> The Stars Are Legion 29090844
On the outer rim of the universe, a galactic war has been waged for centuries upon hundreds of world-ships. But these worlds will continue to die through decay and constant war unless a desperate plan succeeds.

Anat, leader of the Katazyrna world-ship and the most fearsome raiding force on the Outer Rim, wants peace. To do so she offers the hand of her daughter, Jayd, to her rival. Jayd has dreamed about leading her mother’s armies to victory her whole life—but she has a unique ability, and that makes her leverage, not a leader. As Anat convinces her to spend the rest of her life wed to her family’s greatest enemy, it is up to Jayd’s sister Zan—with no stomach for war—to lead the cast off warriors she has banded together to victory and rescue Jayd. But the war does not go at all as planned�

In the tradition of The Fall of Hyperion and Dune, The Stars are Legion is an epic and thrilling tale about familial love, revenge, and war as imagined by one of the genre’s most imaginative new writers.]]> 512 Kameron Hurley Christos 0 to-read, tbr-sf 3.66 2017 The Stars Are Legion
author: Kameron Hurley
name: Christos
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: to-read, tbr-sf
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Neutronium Alchemist (Night's Dawn, #2)]]> 479561
The ancient menace has finally escaped from Lalonde, shattering the Confederation's peaceful existence. Those who succumbed to it have acquired godlike powers, but now follow a far from divine gospel as they advance inexorably from world to world.

On planets and asteroids, individuals battle for survival against the strange and brutal forces unleashed upon the universe. Governments teeter on the brink of anarchy, the Conferderation Navy is dangerously over-stretched, and a dark messiah prepares to invoke his own version of the final Night.

In such desperate times the last thing the galaxy needs is a new and terrifyingly powerful weapon. Yet Dr Alkad Mzu is determined to retrieve the Alchemist - so she can complete her thirty-year vendetta to slay a star. Which means Joshua Calvert has to find Dr. Mzu and bring her back before the alchemist can be reactivated.

But he's not alone in the chase, and there are people on both sides who have their own ideas about how to use the ultimate doomsday device.]]> 1273 Peter F. Hamilton 0330351435 Christos 0 to-read, tbr-sf-series 4.26 1997 The Neutronium Alchemist (Night's Dawn, #2)
author: Peter F. Hamilton
name: Christos
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: to-read, tbr-sf-series
review:

]]> Chasm City 89185 694 Alastair Reynolds 0441010644 Christos 0 to-read, tbr-sf-series 4.14 2001 Chasm City
author: Alastair Reynolds
name: Christos
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: to-read, tbr-sf-series
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Kill the Farm Boy (The Tales of Pell, #1)]]> 34431692
This is not that fairy tale.

There is a Chosen One, but he is unlike any One who has ever been Chosened.

And there is a faraway kingdom, but you have never been to a magical world quite like the land of Pell.

There, a plucky farm boy will find more than he's bargained for on his quest to awaken the sleeping princess in her cursed tower. First there's the Dark Lord who wishes for the boy's untimely death . . . and also very fine cheese. Then there's a bard without a song in her heart but with a very adorable and fuzzy tail, an assassin who fears not the night but is terrified of chickens, and a mighty fighter more frightened of her sword than of her chain-mail bikini. This journey will lead to sinister umlauts, a trash-talking goat, the Dread Necromancer Steve, and a strange and wondrous journey to the most peculiar "happily ever after" that ever once-upon-a-timed.]]> 384 Delilah S. Dawson 1524797758 Christos 3 3.42 2018 Kill the Farm Boy (The Tales of Pell, #1)
author: Delilah S. Dawson
name: Christos
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/03
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: 1-fantasy, 7-2025, published-2010s, sl-f, writer-male-female
review:

]]> Womb City 61725531 WOMB CITY imagines a dark and deadly future Botswana, rich with culture and true folklore, which begs the question: how far must one go to destroy the structures of inequality upon which a society was founded? How far must a mother go to save the life of her child?

Nelah seems to have it all: wealth, fame, a husband, and a child on the way. But in a body her husband controls via microchip and the tailspin of a loveless marriage, her hopes and dreams come to a devastating halt. A drug-fueled night of celebration ends in a hit-and-run. To dodge a sentencing in a society that favors men, Nelah and her side-piece, Janith Koshal, finish the victim off and bury the body.

But the secret claws its way into Nelah's life from the grave. As her victim's vengeful ghost begins exacting a bloody revenge on everyone Nelah holds dear, she'll have to unravel her society's terrible secrets to stop those in power, and become a monster unlike any other to quench the ghost's violent thirst.]]> 416 Tlotlo Tsamaase 1645660567 Christos 3 3.19 2018 Womb City
author: Tlotlo Tsamaase
name: Christos
average rating: 3.19
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/01
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: 2-scifi, 7-2025, poc-writer, published-2010s, sl-sf, writer-male
review:

]]> <![CDATA[In Fury Born (1) (Fury Series)]]> 130528
In Fury Born is a greatly expanded new version of David Weber's popular novel Path of the Fury, which has gone through six large printings in its original mass market edition. David Weber has added considerable new material, revealing the earlier life of Alicia DeVries before she embarked on her mission of vengeance, and illuminating the universe of the original story. The result is a novel with almost twice the wordage of the original, and a must-buy for all David Weber fans.]]> 864 David Weber 1416520546 Christos 4 4.24 1992 In Fury Born (1) (Fury Series)
author: David Weber
name: Christos
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1992
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/28
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves: 2-scifi, 7-2025, published-1990s, sl-sf, writer-male
review:

]]> King Rat 68498 Something is stirring in London's dark, stamping out its territory in brickdust and blood. Something has murdered Saul Garamond's father, and left Saul to pay for the crime.

But a shadow from the urban waste breaks into Saul's prison cell and leads him to freedom. A shadow called King Rat, who reveals Saul's royal heritage, a heritage that opens a new world to Saul, the world below London's streets--a heritage that also drags Saul into King Rat's plan for revenge against his ancient enemy,. With drum 'n' bass pounding the backstreets, Saul must confront the forces that would use him, the forces that would destroy him, and the forces that shape his own bizarre identity.
]]> 320 China Miéville 0312890729 Christos 4 3.56 1998 King Rat
author: China Miéville
name: Christos
average rating: 3.56
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/27
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: 3-horror-thriller, 7-2025, e-book, e-book-2025, published-1990s, sl-f, writer-male
review:

]]> Time of the Cat 199527424
The cats and humans of Chronos College know that time travel is the best job in the world, and nothing bad can ever happen to them in the past� except that one time they lost a traveller. And that other time they lost a cat.

Now they have a chance to make up for past mistakes by rescuing a long lost legend. If only they could convince Professor Boswell, the grumpiest marmalade tabby of all time, to join their mission to the Swinging Sixties, and save one of their own. (Plus pick up a missing piece or two of lost media along the way.)

Join Ruthven, Boswell, Monterey and Lovelace on the most chaotic time travel adventure of their lives. Featuring special appearances by Cleopatra, Anne Boleyn, famous actress Fleur Shropshire, and the even more famous house where they filmed TV show Cramberleigh between 1964-1986.

Time of the Cat is a cozy sci-fi romp through the centuries, featuring academic endnotes, epic friendships, and far more cat hair than is strictly necessary. If you’d rather use time travel to steal the pens of famous writers of history than stop to fill in the proper paperwork, then this is the novel for you.]]> 383 Tansy Rayner Roberts 0645702528 Christos 3 4.26 2023 Time of the Cat
author: Tansy Rayner Roberts
name: Christos
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: 2-scifi, 7-2025, published-2020s, sl-sf, writer-female
review:

]]> The Breathing Method 4945933 Different Seasons collection. In this masterful horror story, thirteen men gather in their gentlemen's club to hear the story of "The Breathing Method." And they will be forever transfigured by this terrifying story of a woman who was determined to give birth at all costs.

The Breathing Method is one of four novellas in a collection that includes The Shawshank Redemption and Apt Pupil.]]> 3 Stephen King 014314393X Christos 4 3.68 1982 The Breathing Method
author: Stephen King
name: Christos
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1982
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: novella, published-1980s, writer-male, 3-horror-thriller
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Courageous (The Lost Fleet, #3)]]> 1372055 The Lost Fleet continues its perilous journey home.

Badly damaged and low on supplies, the Alliance Fleet is raiding Syndic mines for raw materials-and Captain "Black Jack" Geary hopes they can continue to remain one step ahead of their enemies. But the Syndics are the least of Geary's worries when he learns of the existence of aliens with the power to annihilate the human race.]]> 299 Jack Campbell 0441015670 Christos 0 to-read, tbr-sf-series 3.99 2007 Courageous (The Lost Fleet, #3)
author: Jack Campbell
name: Christos
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: to-read, tbr-sf-series
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Humans (Neanderthal Parallax, #2)]]> 337008 Humans, the second book of The Neanderthal Parallax, his trilogy about our world and parallel one in which it was the Homo sapiens who died out and the Neanderthals who became the dominant intelligent species. This powerful idea allows Sawyer to examine some of the deeply rooted assumptions of contemporary human civilization dramatically, by confronting us with another civilization, just as morally valid, that has made other choices. In Humans, Neanderthal physicist Ponter Boddit, a character you will never forget, returns to our world and to his relationship with geneticist Mary Vaughan, as cultural exchanges between the two Earths begin.

As we see daily life in another present-day world, radically different from ours, in the course of Sawyer's fast-moving story, we experience the bursts of wonder and enlightenment that are the finest pleasures of science fiction. Humans is one of the best SF novels of the year, and The Neanderthal Parallax is an SF classic in the making.

Humans is a 2004 Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel.]]> 334 Robert J. Sawyer 0765346753 Christos 0 to-read, tbr-sf-series 3.82 2003 Humans (Neanderthal Parallax, #2)
author: Robert J. Sawyer
name: Christos
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: to-read, tbr-sf-series
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Art of Prophecy (War Arts, #1)]]> 58409712 An epic fantasy ode to martial arts and magic—the story of a spoiled hero, an exacting grandmaster, and an immortal god-king from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lives of Tao.

It has been foretold: A child will rise to defeat the Eternal Khan, a cruel immortal god-king, and save the kingdom.

The hero: Jian, who has been raised since birth in luxury and splendor, celebrated before he has won a single battle.

But the prophecy was wrong.

Because when Taishi, the greatest war artist of her generation, arrives to evaluate the prophesied hero, she finds a spoiled brat unprepared to face his destiny.

But the only force more powerful than fate is Taishi herself. Possessed of an iron will, a sharp tongue—and an unexpectedly soft heart—Taishi will find a way to forge Jian into the weapon and leader he needs to be in order to fulfill his legend.

What follows is a journey more wondrous than any prophecy can foresee: a story of master and student, assassin and revolutionary, of fallen gods and broken prophecies, and of a war between kingdoms, and love and friendship between deadly rivals.]]> 533 Wesley Chu 0593237633 Christos 4 4.04 2022 The Art of Prophecy (War Arts, #1)
author: Wesley Chu
name: Christos
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: 1-fantasy, 7-2025, poc-writer, published-2020s, sl-f, writer-male
review:

]]> <![CDATA[He Who Fights with Monsters (He Who Fights with Monsters, #1)]]> 57189884 Jason wakes up in a mysterious world of magic and monsters.

It’s not easy making the career jump from office-supplies-store middle manager to heroic interdimensional adventurer. At least, Jason tries to be heroic, but it's hard to be good when all your powers are evil.

He’ll face off against cannibals, cultists, wizards, monsters...and that’s just on the first day. He’s going to need courage, he’s going to need wit, and he’s going to need some magic powers of his own. But first, he’s going to need pants.

After cementing itself as one of the best-rated serial novels on Royal Road with an astonishing 13 million views, He Who Fights with Monsters is now available on Kindle.

About the series: Experience an isekai culture clash as a laid-back Australian finds himself in a very serious world. See him gain suspiciously evil powers through a unique progression system combining cultivation and traditional LitRPG elements. Enjoy a weak-to-strong story with a main character who earns his power without overshadowing everyone around him, with plenty of loot, adventurers, gods and magic. Rich characters and world-building offer humor, political intrigue and slice-of-life elements alongside lots of monster fighting and adventure.]]> 680 Shirtaloon Christos 3 4.42 2021 He Who Fights with Monsters (He Who Fights with Monsters, #1)
author: Shirtaloon
name: Christos
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: 1-fantasy, 7-2025, published-2020s, sl-f, writer-male
review:

]]> Patient Zero (Joe Ledger, #1) 3993839 421 Jonathan Maberry 0312382855 Christos 0 to-read, tbr-halloween 4.00 2009 Patient Zero (Joe Ledger, #1)
author: Jonathan Maberry
name: Christos
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: to-read, tbr-halloween
review:

]]> The Dead Cat Tail Assassins 127305606 The Dead Cat Tail Assassins are not cats.

Nor do they have tails.

But they are most assuredly dead.

Nebula and Alex Award winner P. Djèlí Clark introduces a brand-new world and a fantastical city full of gods and assassins.

Eveen the Eviscerator is skilled, discreet, professional, and here for your most pressing needs in the ancient city of Tal Abisi. Her guild is strong, her blades are sharp, and her rules are simple. Those sworn to the Matron of Assassins―resurrected, deadly, wiped of their memories―have only three unbreakable vows.

First, the contract must be just. That’s above Eveen’s pay grade.

Second, even the most powerful assassin may only kill the contracted. Eveen’s a professional. She’s never missed her mark.

The third and the simplest: once you accept a job, you must carry it out. And if you stray? A final death would be a mercy. When the Festival of the Clockwork King turns the city upside down, Eveen’s newest mission brings her face-to-face with a past she isn’t supposed to remember and a vow she can’t forget.]]> 213 P. Djèlí Clark 1250767040 Christos 0 to-read, tbr-fantasy 3.86 2024 The Dead Cat Tail Assassins
author: P. Djèlí Clark
name: Christos
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: to-read, tbr-fantasy
review:

]]> A Sorceress Comes to Call 195790847 A dark retelling of the Brothers Grimm's Goose Girl, rife with secrets, murder, and forbidden magic

Cordelia knows her mother is unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors between rooms, and her mother doesn't allow Cordelia to have a single friend—unless you count Falada, her mother's beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her daily rides with him. But more than simple eccentricity sets her mother apart. Other mothers don’t force their daughters to be silent and motionless for hours, sometimes days, on end. Other mothers aren’t sorcerers.

After a suspicious death in their small town, Cordelia’s mother insists they leave in the middle of the night, riding away on Falada’s sturdy back, leaving behind all Cordelia has ever known. They arrive at the remote country manor of a wealthy older man, the Squire, and his unwed sister, Hester. Cordelia’s mother intends to lure the Squire into marriage, and Cordelia knows this can only be bad news for the bumbling gentleman and his kind, intelligent sister.

Hester sees the way Cordelia shrinks away from her mother, how the young girl sits eerily still at dinner every night. Hester knows that to save her brother from bewitchment and to rescue the terrified Cordelia, she will have to face down a wicked witch of the worst kind.]]> 327 T. Kingfisher 1250244072 Christos 0 to-read, tbr-fantasy 4.07 2024 A Sorceress Comes to Call
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Christos
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: to-read, tbr-fantasy
review:

]]> An Academy for Liars 203956639 A student will find that the hardest lessons sometimes come outside the classroom in this stunning dark academia novel from the acclaimed author of The Year of the Witching and House of Hunger.

Lennon Carter’s life is falling apart.

Then she gets a mysterious phone call inviting her to take the entrance exam for Drayton College, a school of magic hidden in a secret pocket of Savannah. Lennon has been chosen because—like everyone else at the school—she has the innate gift of persuasion, the ability to wield her will like a weapon, using it to control others and, in rare cases, matter itself.

After passing the test, Lennon begins to learn how to master her devastating and unsettling power. But despite persuasion’s heavy toll on her body and mind, she is wholly captivated by her studies, by Drayton’s lush, moss-draped campus, and by her brilliant classmates. But even more captivating is her charismatic adviser, Dante, who both intimidates and enthralls her.

As Lennon continues in her studies her control grows, and she starts to uncover more about the secret world she has entered into, including the disquieting history of Drayton College, and the way her mentor’s tragic and violent past intertwines with it. She is increasingly disturbed by what she learns. For it seems that the ultimate test is to embrace absolute power without succumbing to corruption . . . and it's a test she's terrified she is going to fail.]]> 464 Alexis Henderson 0593638301 Christos 0 to-read, tbr-halloween 3.45 2024 An Academy for Liars
author: Alexis Henderson
name: Christos
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: to-read, tbr-halloween
review:

]]> Zygon Century: Infiltration 216877223
1901: The Unknowing Mirror by Jonathan Barnes - In Edwardian London, that scandalous investigator of occult phenomena, Mr Herbert Scott, and his associate, Father Felix Cromwell, are confronted by a case of possession. A young woman, suffering from unusually vivid dreams, seems also to exhibit signs of a completely separate personality. Another being is speaking through her, a being which claims not to be from Earth at all, a being which calls itself... Zygon.

1935: The Miracle of Pendour Cove by Lauren Mooney and Stewart Pringle - Freddie Trewella has found a mermaid, beautiful and strange, washed ashore in a Cornish bay. He names her Vorvoren, and she comforts him in his harsh life of servitude to a zealot father. As they grow together, Vorvoren shows Freddie her secret power, to change her appearance into anything she desires. But Freddie has secrets of his own, terrible secrets, and soon Vorvoren's great adventure among the humans becomes a nightmarish fight for survival.

1957: Double Agent by Trevor Baxendale - In an England gripped by Cold War paranoia, wounded MI5 operative Caldwell is itching to rejoin the fray abroad. So why are the service sending him to a remote Cornish island? Can the future of the world really be at stake? Will he be able to complete his mission without falling foul of the hideous monsters stalking the caves? And who exactly is the island's other new arrival: an operative of quite a different kind, known only as the Doctor?

**Please note: The Miracle of Pendour Cove contains depictions of domestic violence which we strongly advise is not suitable for younger listeners**]]> Jonathan Barnes 1802406085 Christos 5 audio-drama, audio-drama-2025 4.25 2025 Zygon Century: Infiltration
author: Jonathan Barnes
name: Christos
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: audio-drama, audio-drama-2025
review:

]]> Doctor Who: Most Wanted 60874643 Fast Times by Robert Valentine - When the mysterious Division tries to arrest their equally mysterious agent, the Doctor, she evades capture and heads out in search of answers... but trouble is never far behind. Captured by bounty hunters and imprisoned in a maximum-security hulk ship, the Doctor is about to learn that there's no time to stand still when you're a fugitive. And times are about to get very fast indeed.

1.2 The Legend of Baba Yaga by Rochana Patel - On the run from the Time Lords and in serious need of help, the Doctor heads for 17th-century Russia in search of the legendary witch of Slavic folklore... Baba Yaga. But while trying to gain assistance from this powerful entity, the Doctor finds herself embroiled in events from the most famous of Baba Yaga’s tales when she tries to help a beautiful young woman called Vasilisa retrieve a burning ember to save her family from the bitter Russian winter. What is real? What is fantasy? And will the Doctor be able to tell the difference in time?

1.3 The Dimension of Lost Things by Lisa McMullin - Fleeing Cosmo through the Vortex, the TARDIS gets sucked down a temporal plughole, and the Doctor emerges into a weird landscape. Finding other lost souls in the form of mountaineer George Mallory and scavenger Athelia, the Doctor soon stumbles across another, more surprising denizen of this strange dimension - herself! With Cosmo still in pursuit and memory-stealing winds threatening to wipe her mind for good, the Doctor senses a complex trap in action. But whose trap is it, and how can she possibly escape?]]> 0 Robert Valentine 1838689354 Christos 4 audio-drama, audio-drama-2025 4.16 2025 Doctor Who: Most Wanted
author: Robert Valentine
name: Christos
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: audio-drama, audio-drama-2025
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Doctor Who: Classic Doctors, New Monsters - Volume 5: Faithful Friends]]> 221573292
5.1 The Krillitane Feint by John Dorney - The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe to a planet where a secure research base is conducting disturbing experiments. A group of captive Krillitane are test subjects for a military power, keen to understand the species' unique abilities. But who are the real monsters here?

5.2 The Dying Breed by Tim Foley - When the Doctor, Leela and K9 land on the Lupari homeworld tracking a temporal anomaly, they find a kingdom in disarray. The Great Lord Garzan's son has been attacked, and strange beasts roam the frozen landscape. Whilst Leela spars with the new heir, the Doctor and K9 must work out how all these strange events are connected. Little do they know that their discoveries will shake the Lupari to their core.

5.3 The Krillitane Relic by John Dorney - The TARDIS brings the Doctor and Ray to a space station cryogenic facility, where interplanetary VIPs are stored pending medical cures. There is a familiar face here too - someone the Doctor remembers, but who does not remember him.

5.4 Five Hundred Ways to Leave Your Lover by Tim Foley - Chris is on a date. But it isn't working out. Perhaps he'll end it over dinner. Or on a cruise. Or in a lunar spa. But who are these figures in red? And why are they so invested in his relationship? All of reality might be at stake, and the Monks will pursue Chris wherever he goes - but as long as he manages to break up with his boyfriend, the Doctor, everything might be saved.]]> John Dorney 1802406476 Christos 5 audio-drama, audio-drama-2025 4.17 Doctor Who: Classic Doctors, New Monsters - Volume 5: Faithful Friends
author: John Dorney
name: Christos
average rating: 4.17
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: audio-drama, audio-drama-2025
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Doctor Who: The Living Darkness]]> 213826187 Jacqueline Rayner 1802405844 Christos 4 audio-drama, audio-drama-2025 3.87 Doctor Who: The Living Darkness
author: Jacqueline Rayner
name: Christos
average rating: 3.87
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: audio-drama, audio-drama-2025
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Children of Gods and Fighting Men (Gael Song, #1)]]> 60387416
They think they've killed the last of us...

981 AD. The Viking King of Dublin is dead. His young widow, Gormflaith, has ambitions for her son � and herself � but Ireland is a dangerous place and kings tend not to stay kings for long. Gormflaith also has a secret. She is one of the Fomorians, an immortal race who can do fire-magic. She has kept her powers hidden at all costs, for there are other immortals in this world � like the Tuatha Dé Danann, a race of warriors who are sworn to kill Fomorians.

Fódla is one of the Tuatha Dé Danann with the gift of healing. Her kind dwell hidden in a fortress, forbidden to live amongst the mortals. Fódla agrees to help her kin by going to spy on Brian Boru, a powerful man who aims to be High King of Ireland. She finds a land on the brink of war � a war she is desperate to stop. However, preventing the loss of mortal lives is not easy with Ireland in turmoil and the Fomorians now on the rise...]]> 416 Shauna Lawless Christos 0 to-read, tbr-fantasy 4.11 2022 The Children of Gods and Fighting Men (Gael Song, #1)
author: Shauna Lawless
name: Christos
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: to-read, tbr-fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Blue Remembered Earth (Poseidon's Children, #1)]]> 9424053
One hundred and fifty years from now, in a world where Africa is the dominant technological and economic power, and where crime, war, disease and poverty have been banished to history, Geoffrey Akinya wants only one thing: to be left in peace, so that he can continue his studies into the elephants of the Amboseli basin. But Geoffrey's family, the vast Akinya business empire, has other plans. After the death of Eunice, Geoffrey's grandmother, erstwhile space explorer and entrepreneur, something awkward has come to light on the Moon, and Geoffrey is tasked - well, blackmailed, really - to go up there and make sure the family's name stays suitably unblemished. But little does Geoffrey realise - or anyone else in the family, for that matter - what he's about to unravel.

Eunice's ashes have already have been scattered in sight of Kilimanjaro. But the secrets she died with are about to come back out into the open, and they could change everything.

Or shatter this near-utopia into shards...]]> 512 Alastair Reynolds 0575088273 Christos 0 to-read, tbr-sf 3.87 2012 Blue Remembered Earth (Poseidon's Children, #1)
author: Alastair Reynolds
name: Christos
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: to-read, tbr-sf
review:

]]> Making History 1139299


In Stephen Fry's most seriously ambitious novel to date, he creates a futuristic fantasy that becomes a thriller with a funny streak. Tackling one of history's darkest episodes, he poses the question: What if Hitler had never been born? An unquestionable improvement, no doubt. Michael Young, an earnest young history graduate student, has just finished his dissertation, an exploration into the roots of evil and the early life of Adolf Hitler. When he meets up with an aging German physicist, they concoct an idealistic experiment that involves time travel to prevent the conception of the Fuhrer. It will change the course of history, but will it create a better world? With characteristic brilliance and wit, Fry presents a thought-provoking alternate history that is both trenchant and deeply affecting.

]]> 556 Stephen Fry 0099464810 Christos 0 to-read, tbr-sf 3.89 1996 Making History
author: Stephen Fry
name: Christos
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: to-read, tbr-sf
review:

]]> Glasshouse 17866
On the run from a ruthless pursuer and searching for a place to hide, he volunteers to participate in a unique experimental polity, the Glasshouse, constructed to simulate a pre-accelerated culture. Participants are assigned anonymized identities: It looks like the ideal hiding place for a posthuman on the run. But in this escape-proof environment, Robin will undergo an even more radical change, placing him at the mercy of the experimenters—and at the mercy of his own unbalanced psyche...]]> 335 Charles Stross 0441014038 Christos 3 3.87 2006 Glasshouse
author: Charles Stross
name: Christos
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/17
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: 2-scifi, 7-2025, published-2000s, sl-sf, writer-male
review:

]]> The Last Days of Krypton 252258
Everyone knows how Kal-El--Superman--was sent to Earth just before his planet exploded. But what led to such a disaster? Now, in The Last Days of Krypton, Kevin J. Anderson presents a sweeping tale of the pomp and grandeur, the intrigue and passion, and the politics and betrayals of a doomed world filled with brave heroes and cruel traitors.

Against the spectacular backdrop of Krypton's waning halcyon days, there is the courtship and marriage of Kal-El's parents, the brilliant scientist Jor-El and his historian wife, Lara. Together they fight to convince a stagnant, disbelieving society that their world is about to end. Jor-El's brother, Zor-El, leader of the fabled Argo City, joins the struggle not only to save the planet but also to fight against the menace of the ruthless and cunning General Zod.

The diabolical Zod, future archenemy of Superman, avails himself of a golden opportunity to seize power when the android Brainiac captures the capital city of Kandor. As Zod's grip on the populace tightens and his power grows, he too is blind to all the signs that point to the death of the very civilization he is trying to rule.

Through all of this, Jor-El and Lara's love for each other, their history, and their son allows for Krypton to live on even as the planet is torn apart around them. For in the escape of their baby lies Krypton's greatest gift--and Earth's greatest hero.

The Last Days of Krypton is a timeless, groundbreaking exploration of a world that has never been fully defined, and reveals the extraordinary origins of a legend that has never ceased to amaze and astound generation after generation.]]> 412 Kevin J. Anderson 006134074X Christos 4 3.78 2007 The Last Days of Krypton
author: Kevin J. Anderson
name: Christos
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves: 2-scifi, 7-2025, eu, published-2000s, sl-sf, writer-male, e-book, e-book-2025
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Twelve Kings in Sharakhai (The Song of the Shattered Sands, #1)]]> 24611565
Or so it seems, until Çeda, a brave young woman from the west end slums, defies the Kings' laws by going outside on the holy night of Beht Zha'ir. What she learns that night sets her on a path that winds through both the terrible truths of the Kings' mysterious history and the hidden riddles of her own heritage. Together, these secrets could finally break the iron grip of the Kings' power...if the nigh-omnipotent Kings don't find her first. ]]> 592 Bradley P. Beaulieu 0756409721 Christos 4 3.90 2015 Twelve Kings in Sharakhai (The Song of the Shattered Sands, #1)
author: Bradley P. Beaulieu
name: Christos
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/15
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: 1-fantasy, 7-2025, published-2010s, sl-f, writer-male
review:

]]> <![CDATA[First Contact (In Her Name: The Last War, #1)]]> 10881616 392 Michael R. Hicks 0984492720 Christos 0 to-read, tbr-sf 4.08 2009 First Contact (In Her Name: The Last War, #1)
author: Michael R. Hicks
name: Christos
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves: to-read, tbr-sf
review:

]]> The Day of the Locust 113441 The Day of the Locust is a novel about Hollywood and its corrupting touch, about the American dream turned into a sun-drenched California nightmare. Nathanael West's Hollywood is not the glamorous "home of the stars" but a seedy world of little people, some hopeful, some despairing, all twisted by their by their own desires -- from the ironically romantic artist narrator, to a macho movie cowboy, a middle-aged innocent from America's heartland, and the hard-as-nails call girl would-be-star whom they all lust after. An unforgettable portrayal of a world that mocks the real and rewards the sham, turns its back on love to plunge into empty sex, and breeds a savage violence that is its own undoing, this novel stands as a classic indictment of all that is most extravagant and uncontrolled in American life.]]> 208 Nathanael West 0451523482 Christos 3 3.74 1939 The Day of the Locust
author: Nathanael West
name: Christos
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1939
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/11
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves: 4-fiction, 7-2025, published-1930s, writer-male
review:

]]> Housekeeping 11741 Housekeeping is the story of Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, who grow up haphazardly, first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, their eccentric and remote aunt. The family house is in the small Far West town of Fingerbone set on a glacial lake, the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck, and their mother drove off a cliff to her death. It is a town "chastened by an outsized landscape and extravagant weather, and chastened again by an awareness that the whole of human history had occurred elsewhere." Ruth and Lucille's struggle toward adulthood beautifully illuminates the price of loss and survival, and the dangerous and deep undertow of transience.]]> 219 Marilynne Robinson 0312424094 Christos 3 3.82 1980 Housekeeping
author: Marilynne Robinson
name: Christos
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1980
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/11
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves: 4-fiction, 7-2025, published-1980s, writer-female
review:

]]> Appointment in Samarra 126583 251 John O'Hara 0375719202 Christos 3 3.82 1934 Appointment in Samarra
author: John O'Hara
name: Christos
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1934
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: 4-fiction, 7-2025, published-1930s, writer-male
review:

]]> Tropic of Cancer (Tropic, #1) 249 Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller’s masterpiece, was banned as obscene in this country for twenty-seven years after its first publication in Paris in 1934. Only a historic court ruling that changed American censorship standards, ushering in a new era of freedom and frankness in modern literature, permitted the publication of this first volume of Miller’s famed mixture of memoir and fiction, which chronicles with unapologetic gusto the bawdy adventures of a young expatriate writer, his friends, and the characters they meet in Paris in the 1930s. Tropic of Cancer is now considered, as Norman Mailer said, "one of the ten or twenty great novels of our century."]]> 318 Henry Miller 0802131786 Christos 3 3.69 1934 Tropic of Cancer (Tropic, #1)
author: Henry Miller
name: Christos
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1934
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: 4-fiction, 7-2025, published-1930s, writer-male
review:

]]> Money 18825 Time Magazine included the book in its list of the 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. The story of John Self and his insatiable appetite for money, alcohol, fast food, drugs, pornography, and more, Money is ceaselessly inventive and thrillingly savage; a tale of life lived without restraint, of money and the disasters it can precipitate.]]> 394 Martin Amis 0099461889 Christos 3 3.71 1984 Money
author: Martin Amis
name: Christos
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1984
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/09
date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: 4-fiction, 7-2025, published-1980s, writer-male
review:

]]> Prophet Song 158875813
On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police are here to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist.

Ireland is falling apart. The country is in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny and Eilish can only watch helplessly as the world she knew disappears. When first her husband and then her eldest son vanish, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a collapsing society.

How far will she go to save her family? And what � or who � is she willing to leave behind?

Exhilarating, terrifying and propulsive, Prophet Song is a work of breathtaking originality, offering a devastating vision of a country at war and a deeply human portrait of a mother’s fight to hold her family together.]]> 259 Paul Lynch Christos 3 4.03 2023 Prophet Song
author: Paul Lynch
name: Christos
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/06
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: 2-scifi, 7-2025, published-2020s, sl-sf, writer-male
review:

]]> Hell Divers (Hell Divers, #1) 28464896
When one of the remaining airships is damaged in an electrical storm, a Hell Diver team is deployed to a hostile zone called Hades. But there’s something down there far worse than the mutated creatures discovered on dives in the past—something that threatens the fragile future of humanity.]]> Nicholas Sansbury Smith 1504713958 Christos 4 3.83 2016 Hell Divers (Hell Divers, #1)
author: Nicholas Sansbury Smith
name: Christos
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/06
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: 2-scifi, 7-2025, published-2010s, sl-sf, writer-male
review:

]]> Age of Ash (Kithamar, #1) 58340712 Kithamar is a center of trade and wealth, an ancient city with a long, bloody history where countless thousands live and their stories unfold. This is Alys’s.

When her brother is murdered, a petty thief from the slums of Longhill sets out to discover who killed him and why. But the more she discovers about him, the more she learns about herself, and the truths she finds are more dangerous than knives.

Swept up in an intrigue as deep as the roots of Kithamar, where the secrets of the lowest born can sometimes topple thrones, the story Alys chooses will have the power to change everything.

From critically acclaimed, New York Times–bestselling author Daniel Abraham, co-author of The Expanse, comes a monumental epic fantasy trilogy that unfolds within the walls of a single great city, over the course of one tumultuous year, where every story matters, and the fate of the city is woven from them all.]]> 448 Daniel Abraham 0316421847 Christos 0 to-read, tbr-fantasy 3.58 2022 Age of Ash (Kithamar, #1)
author: Daniel Abraham
name: Christos
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves: to-read, tbr-fantasy
review:

]]> An Election 9668280 23 John Scalzi 159606496X Christos 0 to-read, tbr-sf 3.61 2010 An Election
author: John Scalzi
name: Christos
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves: to-read, tbr-sf
review:

]]> Sky Full of Elephants 207293815 In this exquisite speculative novel set in a world where white people no longer exist, college professor Charlie Brunton receives a call from his estranged daughter Sidney, setting off a chain of events as they journey across a truly “post-racial� America in search of answers.

One day, a cataclysmic event occurs: all of the white people in America walk into the nearest body of water. A year later, Charles Brunton is a Black man living in an entirely new world. Having served time in prison for a wrongful conviction, he’s now a professor of electric and solar power systems at Howard University when he receives a call from someone he wasn’t even sure existed: his daughter Sidney, a nineteen-year-old who watched her white mother and step-family drown themselves in the lake behind their house.

Traumatized by the event, and terrified of the outside world, Sidney has spent a year in isolation in Wisconsin. Desperate for help, she turns to the father she never met, a man she has always resented. Sidney and Charlie meet for the first time as they embark on a journey across America headed for Alabama, where Sidney believes she may still have some family left. But neither Sidney or Charlie is prepared for this new world and how they see themselves in it.

When they enter the Kingdom of Alabama, everything Charlie and Sidney thought they knew about themselves, and the world, will be turned upside down. Brimming with heart and humor, Cebo Campbell’s astonishing debut novel is about the power of community and connection, about healing and self-actualization, and a reckoning with what it means to be Black in America, in both their world and ours.]]> 304 Cebo Campbell 1668034921 Christos 3 3.82 2024 Sky Full of Elephants
author: Cebo Campbell
name: Christos
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/03
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: 2-scifi, 7-2025, poc-writer, published-2020s, sl-sf, writer-male
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Citadel (The Palladium Wars #3)]]> 53645701
The war should have been over. But it’s not for a group of nationalists grabbing for control.

It’s been two weeks since a missile with a nuclear warhead tore through the planetary defenses in the most blistering large-scale attack ever committed in the history of the Gaia system. Commander Dunstan Park of the Rhodian navy has been handpicked to command an experimental cruiser that could dictate the course of the escalating conflict. All he has to do is keep the ship from falling into the wrong hands.

On Gretia, the powder keg is beyond control. A terrorist attack against civilians draws Idina Chaudhary into a costly battle. It also forces a cautious Aden Jansen back into the fray. Now dedicated to a just cause, he’s still keeping his past hidden. The risk of exposing his former alliance could twist not only his fate but also that of his sister, Solveig, heir to the family empire.

With no time to waste, Dunstan hits the ground running. But as insurgents threaten the unstable peace, what’s ahead for both sides could change the destiny of the Gaia system forever.]]> 329 Marko Kloos 1542027268 Christos 4 4.46 2021 Citadel (The Palladium Wars #3)
author: Marko Kloos
name: Christos
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: 2-scifi, 7-2025, published-2020s, sl-sf, writer-male
review:

]]> The Family Experiment 197108968 From the acclaimed author of The One and The Marriage Act, The Family Experiment is a dark and brilliant speculative thriller about families: real and virtual.

Some families are virtually perfect�

The world's population is soaring, creating overcrowded cities and an economic crisis. And in the UK, the breaking point has arrived. A growing number of people can no longer afford to start families, let alone raise them.

But for those desperate to experience parenthood, there is an alternative. For a monthly subscription fee, clients can create a virtual child from scratch who they can access via the metaverse and a VR headset. To launch this new initiative, the company behind Virtual Children has created a reality TV show called The Substitute. It will follow ten couples as they raise a Virtual Child from birth to the age of eighteen but in a condensed nine-month time period. The prize: the right to keep their virtual child, or risk it all for the chance of a real baby�

Set in the same universe as John Marrs's bestselling novel The One and The Marriage Act, The Family Experiment is a dark and twisted thriller about the ultimate Tamagotchi—a virtual baby.]]> 384 John Marrs 1335000364 Christos 3 4.01 2024 The Family Experiment
author: John Marrs
name: Christos
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: 2-scifi, 7-2025, published-2020s, sl-sf, writer-male
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Not Till We Are Lost (Bobiverse #5)]]> 159116833
The Bobiverse is a different place in the aftermath of the Starfleet War, and the days of the Bobs gathering in one big happy moot are far behind. There’s anti-Bob sentiment on multiple planets, the Skippies playing with an AI time bomb, and multiple Bobs just wanting to get away from it all.

But it all pales compared to what Icarus and Daedalus discover on their 26,000-year journey to the center of the galaxy. Sure, it could settle the Fermi Paradox for good (and what Bob doesn’t want to solve a mystery of the universe?). But it also reveals a threat to the galaxy greater than anything the Bobs could have imagined.

Just another average day in the Bobiverse.]]> 413 Dennis E. Taylor Christos 4 4.25 2024 Not Till We Are Lost (Bobiverse #5)
author: Dennis E. Taylor
name: Christos
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: 2-scifi, 7-2025, published-2020s, sl-sf, writer-male
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Exogenesis (Stargate Atlantis, #5)]]> 151135 When Dr. Carson Beckett disturbs the rest of two longdead Ancients, he unleashes devastating consequences of global proportions.
With the very existence of Lantea at risk, Colonel John Sheppard leads his team on a desperate search for the long lost Ancient device that could save Atlantis. While Teyla Emmagan and Dr. Elizabeth Weir battle the ecological meltdown consuming their world, Colonel Sheppard, Dr. Rodney McKay and Dr. Zelenka travel to a world created by the Ancients themselves. There they discover a human experiment that could mean their salvation�
But the truth is never as simple as it seems, and the team’s prejudices lead them to make a fatal error � an error that could slaughter thousands, including their own Dr. McKay.]]> 322 Sonny Whitelaw 1905586027 Christos 3 3.90 2006 Exogenesis (Stargate Atlantis, #5)
author: Sonny Whitelaw
name: Christos
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/30
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: 7-2025, 2-scifi, e-book-2025, e-book, eu, published-2000s, writer-female
review:

]]> In Ascension 197063361
Leigh grew up in Rotterdam, drawn to the waterfront as an escape from her unhappy home life and volatile father. Enchanted by the undersea world of her childhood, she excels in marine biology, travelling the globe to study ancient organisms. When a trench is discovered in the Atlantic ocean, Leigh joins the exploration team, hoping to find evidence of the earth's first life forms � what she instead finds calls into question everything we know about our own beginnings. Her discovery leads Leigh to the Mojave desert and an ambitious new space agency.

Drawn deeper into the agency's work, she learns that the Atlantic trench is only one of several related phenomena from across the world, each piece linking up to suggest a pattern beyond human understanding. Leigh knows that to continue working with the agency will mean leaving behind her declining mother and her younger sister, and faces an impossible choice: to remain with her family, or to embark on a journey across the breadth of the cosmos.

Exploring the natural world with the wonder and reverence we usually reserve for the stars, In Ascension is a compassionate, deeply inquisitive epic that reaches outward to confront the greatest questions of existence, looks inward to illuminate the smallest details of the human heart, and shows how � no matter how far away we might be and how much we have lost hope � we will always attempt to return to the people and places we call home.]]> 496 Martin MacInnes 0802163467 Christos 3 3.70 2023 In Ascension
author: Martin MacInnes
name: Christos
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/29
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves: 2-scifi, 7-2025, published-2020s, sl-sf, writer-male
review:

]]> Batman: Resurrection 210410462 After The Joker’s death, Batman and Gotham City face a mysterious new threat in this direct sequel to Tim Burton’s iconic Batman.

The Joker is dead, but not forgotten. Gotham City is saved, but it is still not safe. By night, its new symbol of hope, Batman, continues his fight to protect the innocent and the powerless. By day, his alter ego, Bruce Wayne, wonders whether there may someday be a future beyond skulking the city’s rooftops or the cavernous halls of his stately manor alongside the ever-dutiful Alfred Pennyworth.

But even after death, the Clown Prince of Crime’s imprint can be seen in more than just the pavement. Remnants from The Joker’s gang are leading wannabes fascinated by his bizarre mystique on a campaign of arson that threatens the city—even as it serves greedy opportunists, including millionaire Max Shreck. And survivors of exposure to The Joker’s chemical weapon Smylex continue to crowd Gotham City’s main hospital.

To quell the chaos, Batman needs more than his cape and his well-stocked Utility Belt. Bruce Wayne is forced into action, prompting a partnership with a charismatic scientist to help solve the health crisis. But as he works in both the shadows and the light, Bruce finds himself drawn deeper into Gotham City’s turmoil than ever before, fueling his obsession to save the city—an obsession that has already driven a wedge between him and Vicki Vale. The loyal Alfred, who had hoped Bruce’s efforts as Batman could help him find closure, finds the opposite happening. Nightmares begin to prompt Bruce to ask new questions about the climactic events in the cathedral, and investigations by Commissioner Gordon and reporter Alexander Knox into the arsons only amplify his concerns.

Having told the people of Gotham City that they’d earned a rest from crime, Batman finds the forces of evil growing ever more organized—and orchestrated—by a sinister hand behind the scenes. The World’s Greatest Detective must solve the greatest mystery of all: Could The Joker have somehow survived? And could he still have the last laugh against the people of Gotham City?]]> 418 John Jackson Miller 0593871901 Christos 4 4.07 2024 Batman: Resurrection
author: John Jackson Miller
name: Christos
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/27
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: 2-scifi, 7-2025, eu, published-2020s, sl-sf, writer-male
review:

]]> And Then There Were None 16299
"Ten little boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine. Nine little boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight. Eight little boys traveling in Devon; One said he'd stay there then there were seven. Seven little boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in half and then there were six. Six little boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five. Five little boys going in for law; One got in Chancery and then there were four. Four little boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three. Three little boys walking in the zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two. Two little boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was one. One little boy left all alone; He went out and hanged himself and then there were none."

When they realize that murders are occurring as described in the rhyme, terror mounts. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, there will be none. Who has choreographed this dastardly scheme? And who will be left to tell the tale? Only the dead are above suspicion.]]> 264 Agatha Christie 0312330871 Christos 4 4.28 1939 And Then There Were None
author: Agatha Christie
name: Christos
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1939
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: 5-mystery, 7-2025, published-1930s, writer-female
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Hercule Poirot, #1)]]> 52843028
A refugee of the Great War, Poirot has settled in England near Styles Court, the country estate of his wealthy benefactor, the elderly Emily Inglethorp. When Emily is poisoned and the authorities are baffled, Poirot puts his prodigious sleuthing skills to work. Suspects are plentiful, including the victim’s much younger husband, her resentful stepsons, her longtime hired companion, a young family friend working as a nurse, and a London specialist on poisons who just happens to be visiting the nearby village.

All of them have secrets they are desperate to keep, but none can outwit Poirot as he navigates the ingenious red herrings and plot twists that contribute to Agatha Christie's well-deserved reputation as the queen of mystery.]]> 174 Agatha Christie 1734452595 Christos 4 4.06 1920 The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Hercule Poirot, #1)
author: Agatha Christie
name: Christos
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1920
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/22
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: 5-mystery, 7-2025, published-1920s, writer-female
review:

]]> The Moviegoer 10739
On the eve of his thirtieth birthday, Binx Bolling is adrift. He occupies himself dallying with his secretaries and going to movies, which provide him with the "treasurable moments" absent from his real life. But one fateful Mardi Gras, Binx embarks on a quest - a harebrained search for authenticity that outrages his family, endangers his fragile cousin Kate, and sends him reeling through the gaudy chaos of the French Quarter. Wry and wrenching, rich in irony and romance, "The Moviegoer" is a genuine American classic.]]> 242 Walker Percy 0375701966 Christos 3 3.66 1961 The Moviegoer
author: Walker Percy
name: Christos
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1961
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves: 4-fiction, 7-2025, published-1960s, writer-male
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Doctor Who: The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield: The Eternity Club 4]]> 209569866
8.7 Sanctuary - A battlefleet has breached the defences of the Eternity Club, demanding the surrender of The Death. Only Bernice Summerfield knows what this is - and even she cannot believe it.

8.8 Liturgy of Death - The Eternity Club has fallen. How long can the survivors endure? The time has come for three members to reveal their true identities.

**Please note: The collectors' edition CDs are strictly limited to 1,000 copies**]]> Tim Foley 1802404007 Christos 5 audio-drama, audio-drama-2025 4.05 Doctor Who: The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield: The Eternity Club 4
author: Tim Foley
name: Christos
average rating: 4.05
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/01/19
shelves: audio-drama, audio-drama-2025
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Hercule Poirot, #4)]]> 16328
The peaceful English village of King’s Abbot is stunned. The widow Ferrars dies from an overdose of Veronal. Not twenty-four hours later, Roger Ackroyd—the man she had planned to marry—is murdered. It is a baffling case involving blackmail and death that taxes Hercule Poirot’s “little grey cells� before he reaches one of the most startling conclusions of his career.

Librarian's note: the first fifteen novels in the Hercule Poirot series are 1) The Mysterious Affair at Styles, 1920; 2) The Murder on the Links, 1923; 3) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, 1926; 4) The Big Four, 1927; 5) The Mystery of the Blue Train, 1928; 6) Peril at End House, 1932; 7) Lord Edgware Dies, 1933; 8) Murder on the Orient Express, 1934; 9) Three Act Tragedy, 1935; 10) Death in the Clouds, 1935; 11) The A.B.C. Murders, 1936; 12) Murder in Mesopotamia, 1936; 13) Cards on the Table, 1936; 14) Dumb Witness, 1937; and 15) Death on the Nile, 1937. These are just the novels; Poirot also appears in this period in a play, Black Coffee, 1930, and two collections of short stories, Poirot Investigates, 1924, and Murder in the Mews, 1937. Each novel, play and short story has its own entry on ŷ.]]> 288 Agatha Christie 1579126278 Christos 4 4.26 1926 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Hercule Poirot, #4)
author: Agatha Christie
name: Christos
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1926
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/17
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves: 5-mystery, 7-2025, published-1920s, writer-female
review:

]]> The Confessions of Nat Turner 577283 453 William Styron 0679736638 Christos 4 3.96 1968 The Confessions of Nat Turner
author: William Styron
name: Christos
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1968
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/16
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: 7-2025, published-1960s, 4-fiction, writer-male, e-book-2025, e-book
review:

]]> Doctor Who: The Curse of Time 216420674 Jonathan Morris 180240466X Christos 4 audio-drama, audio-drama-2025 4.00 Doctor Who: The Curse of Time
author: Jonathan Morris
name: Christos
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: audio-drama, audio-drama-2025
review:

]]> Doctor Who: Deadly Strangers 182095301
Puccini and the Doctor by Matthew Jacobs - Inspired by his friends, the Doctor takes Charley and Audacity to Milan to meet Puccini and hear the music of love. But the Doctor is not the only alien entranced by humanity. The mysterious Tura is setting riddles, and for those who answer, the experience is transformative.

Women's Day Off by Lisa McMullin - Iceland, 1975. Charley and Audacity are thrilled to discover that the women have gone on strike. All of them. With potentially disastrous consequences for a girl called Kyla - and everyone she comes into contact with.

The Gloaming by Lauren Mooney and Stewart Pringle - The Doctor, Charley and Audacity arrive on Gloaming, a luxury sleep clinic in orbit around a dead world. Gloaming is filled with wealthy Sleepers, dreaming through the dark ages of their world in suspended animation. But something is growing here, creeping into minds and poisoning dreams. Something the Doctor fought long ago...]]> 0 Matthew Jacobs 1802401857 Christos 4 audio-drama, audio-drama-2025 3.92 Doctor Who: Deadly Strangers
author: Matthew Jacobs
name: Christos
average rating: 3.92
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: audio-drama, audio-drama-2025
review:

]]> The Silent Patient 40097951
Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....

The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.]]> 336 Alex Michaelides 1250301696 Christos 4 4.18 2019 The Silent Patient
author: Alex Michaelides
name: Christos
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/14
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: 5-mystery, 7-2025, published-2010s, writer-male
review:

]]> Pale Fire 7805
Nabokov's darkly witty, richly inventive masterpiece is a suspenseful whodunit, a story of one-upmanship and dubious penmanship, and a glorious literary conundrum.

Part of a major new series of the works of Vladimir Nabokov, author of Lolita and Pale Fire, in Penguin Classics.]]> 246 Vladimir Nabokov Christos 4 4.17 1962 Pale Fire
author: Vladimir Nabokov
name: Christos
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1962
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/10
date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: 4-fiction, 7-2025, published-1960s, writer-male
review:

]]>