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| The October cover collage |
October brought eight books and 2,147 pages. One non-fiction, one roleplaying and the rest fiction. Apparently I'm down 27% on books and 30% on pages on September! I'm on 85 books in total for the year so far.
The non-fiction was 'Pathogenesis', by Jonathan Reynolds. A fascinating listen on Audible, it covers the impact of infections disease on human society, a very different lens to the usual 'great men and empires' take.
The roleplaying game was 'Root' by Magpie Games. A superbly written and beautifully illustrated Powered by the Apocalypse game of the boardgame of the same name. Characters take the role of a band of vagabonds in a war-torn wood. Putting the anthropogenic animals to one side, it's probably the closest take to a decent Robin Hood roleplaying game that I've seen.
I read to Aliette de Bodard novellas, 'In the Shadow of the Ship' and 'Navigational Entanglements' and enjoyed them hugely. Her books remain an automatic purchase and go to the top of the reading pile! James SA Corey's 'Livesuit' is set in their new SF universe, but there wasn't an initial obvious link to the first book. I'm sure that will develop as the series progresses. An enjoyable novella.
'The Wife Swap' by Jack Heath was an impulse by on a Kindle offer, and it was a diverting murder mystery. Different to my usual fair and consumed quite quickly.
'Moscow X' by David McCloskey was pretty brutal; once again, this wasn't James Bond style spy fiction but espionage seen through the lens of realism. I look forward to the next book. This was just pipped to the post as my favourite read of the month by 'The Curse of Pietro Houdini' by Derek B Miller. Set in Monte Cassino around the time that the Allies assault the Abbey in World War Two, it tells the story of a young refugee from Rome who falls in with Pietro Houdini, a man sent by the Vatican to help protect the art at the Abbey. It felt very different and I enjoyed it immensely.
1 October 2024