Or: How I Learned You Can Never Pack Too Many Books
Hello! I’ve been away in Spain for the last two weeks doing very little apart from swimming in the pool, eating my weight in ice cream and reading a ton of books. So instead of the usual I’ve Been Playing… and I’ve Been Watching… sections, I thought I’d share some thoughts on all my holiday reads.
Acceptance (Jeff VanderMeer)
I’ve been working my way through the Southern Reach trilogy this year, and I’m kicking myself for not having started it sooner. Where the first book (Annihilation) felt like a journey into the unknown, and the second (Authority) was full of New Weird office politics not unlike the excellent Control games, Acceptance feels much broader but no less deep for it. There are lots of different threads here, but the way they all converge by the end is masterful. There’s a fourth Southern Reach book out now and a fifth (and final) one on the way next year, and I’m very excited to see where the series goes next.
Neuromancer (William Gibson)
I’m a big fan of cyberpunk as a genre, but after so many years of books, TV and games that have taken inspiration from Neuromancer, I was expecting the book itself to feel redundant. But to my delight, it feels just as vital now as it did 40 years ago. Gibson’s dialogue sparks and crackles with the slang of the Sprawl, and his descriptions of cyberspace feel totally unique despite inspiring scores of imitators. Very interested to see the Apple TV adaptation that’s in the works for next year.
The Staircase in the Woods (Chuck Wendig)
I burned through The Staircase in the Woods in a day, and now I’m desperate to read everything else that Chuck Wendig has ever written. The premise feels like something Stephen King could have written, but in execution it’s more akin to something like Kitty Horrorshow’s Anatomy; a story about haunted houses and haunted people that asks which one is really responsible for the creation of the other.
Babel (R.F. Kuang)
Between this and the excellent Katabasis, R.F. Kuang is rapidly becoming one of my favourite writers. I really enjoy the way she creates systems of magic. Where Katabasis built spells out of paradoxes, Babel finds magic in the gaps between words and their translations, which is basically catnip for a big ol’ language nerd like me. After a pretty huge plot twist in the second act the action really ramps up, and the ending is an absolute belter: only slightly let down by Kuang’s use of pretty detailed footnotes. Not sure which way I should go next in Kuang’s spectrum of work — the more fantastical (The Poppy War) or the more literary (Yellowface) — but I’m sure I’ll enjoy myself either way.
We Burned So Bright (T.J. Klune)
We Burned So Bright is a story about an old married gay couple facing the end of the world that still manages to be surprisingly heartwarming. It reminded me of John Scalzi’s When The Moon Hits Your Eye in places, in that it’s more interested in human reactions to the apocalypse than explanations for how we got there. This is the kind of love story that we rarely see in fiction, queer or otherwise: two people who have become so comfortable that they are like the breath in each others’ lungs. Your mileage may very when it comes to the ending, which tugs mighty hard on the ol’ heartstrings, but everything before that point is a melancholy delight.
Will Leave The Galaxy For Good (Yahtzee Croshaw)
Imagine Douglas Adams was a cantankerous git who played a lot of video games, and you’ve got some idea of what to expect when it comes to the work of Ben ‘Yahtzee’ Croshaw. His ‘Jacques McKeown’ books are a wonderfully British send-up of the likes of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, and the latest — Will Leave The Galaxy For Good — manages to throw some brilliant jabs at the so-called ‘AI Revolution’ into the bargain. There’s even some fun Easter eggs linking the book to some of Yahtzee’s other works. His style won’t be for everyone, but anyone who’s been enjoying the Dungeon Crawler Carl series should give him a try.
Thanks for reading! As always, be sure to subscribe and let me know if there’s anything you think I should read, play or watch.
Phil W. Bayles 
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