Going through my Kindle Paperwhite, I’ve got the following finished books which I enjoyed enough to get all the way through:
The Wall of America, Thomas M. Disch — Tachyon bundle - Grim, but imaginative stories. Read-again rating: No hurry.
The Very Best of Caitlin R. Kiernan, Caitlin R. Kiernan — Tachyon bundle - Grim and dark. I loved The Ammonite Violin - not too hard to figure out where it was going, but very well done. Read-again rating: Maybe.
Apocalypse Nyx, Kameron Hurley — Tachyon bundle - Wow. WOW. Nothing uplifting or redemptive going on here, but straightforward dystopian fun. 100% read-again.
We Are All Completely Fine, Daryl Gregory — Tachyon bundle. Group therapy Lovecraft-style. Not the most imaginative thing I’ve read, but really solid. Read-again rating: Probably.
Meet Me in the Future: Stories, Kameron Hurley — Tachyon bundle. Murdered pet elephants, lots of death, plague, genderfluid meets grimdark. Read-again rating: Almost certain.
The Best of Michael Moorcock, Michael Moorcock — Tachyon bundle. A Portrait In Ivory was excellent, the Third World War stories were pompous but bearable, the rest was ponderous and self-important. Read again factor: Banished forever.
The Sword & Sorcery Anthology, David G. Hartwell, ed. — Tachyon bundle. This is the good stuff. I’d never read any Robert E. Howard or C.L. Moore, now I can’t wait. Some more good Moorcock, and stuffed with other interesting reads. Read again rating: Almost certain.
The Monstrous, Ellen Datlow, ed. — Tachyon bundle. A Wish From A Bone and Totals could carry the whole anthology, but don’t have to—it’s very strong. I want more Datlow collections! Read again rating: Almost certain.
Inside Job, Connie Willis — Subterranean Press. A novella, entertaining premise but I wanted to reach into the e-reader and pound the crap out of Rob, the obtuse main character. Still finished it, though. Read-again rating: Once was probably enough.
The Hayden War: Silver Wings Books 1-4, Evan Currie. Kindle. 1,047 pages of mostly good hard military sci-fi, the $2.99 cost covered for some underwhelming character development. Read-again rating: Possibly.
Nebula Awards Showcase 2013, Catherine Asaro, ed. Uploaded in 2017, it took awhile to get around to it. Strong stories included Ken Liu’s Paper Menagerie, The Man Who Bridged The Mist from Kij Johnson, and the oddly compelling Sauerkraut Station by Ferrett Steinmetz. Read-again rating: Parts, yes.
Heroes Wanted: A Fantasy Anthology, Ben Galley, et al. Kindle, free book. I remember enjoying the quite a bit while I was reading. Laura Hughes’ Ratman was super, Half-Breed by Joe Jackson was very strong, but the rest, while good, weren’t wildly memorable. Read-again rating: Unlikely.
Recce: Small Team Missions Behind Enemy Lines, Koos Stadler. Kindle. Part of a series of African military reading I started in 2019. Interesting guy, well-written and very tactically-focused memoir by a SADF veteran, but non-committal on the larger historical issues. Read-again rating: Unlikely.
Gardens of the Moon, Steven Erikson. Malazan Book of the Fallen #1. Whiskeyjack and Tattersail, classic sword/sorcery multi-volume set. Entertaining, above-average writing. The series is epic, not kidding: the omnibus edition on Kindle is 10,083 pages and costs an eye-watering $79.92. Read-again rating: Strong ‘possible’.
Skeen’s Leap, Jo Clayton. This was, again, entertaining but the premise and plot were hard for me to really get into. Cross-dimensional salvage/thievery? Read-again rating: No hurry.