What are you reading?

[Harrison]

I know many don't have the time to read much, or at all. As I've mentioned before I listen to a lot of audio books whilst driving to work. Often I get through 1 book per week. But I also like to read books too when I get a chance.

Wool by Hugh Howey.

Recently after watching the TV series Silo I started reading the books it's based on by Hugh Howey. The first book Wool is really good and well worth reading if you liked the series, although you might want to hold off until after the second series of you don't want any spoilers. It's a trilogy of books. The second book isn't so great and was a bit of a slog to get through but it still added to the story, revealing events that let up to why they are in the Silo. Book 3 returned to a similar style as Wool and was far more interesting. Finally revealing much more of how the whole thing works and the overall plan.

They only adapted the first half of Wool for series 1 of Silo so have much more to continue. After series 2 if they reach the end of Wool and continue I think they would do well to jump to book 3 and just use flashbacks for events in book 2 as it's set in the past.

Sand by Hugh Howey

Another book by thy same author as Wool. And again at in a post apocalyptic world, but a different one. But this time the world has been covered by 100s of meters of sand. And Divers using special suits that use electric fields to manipulate the sand dive down to the lost cities to scavenge items.

A nice change to the usual desolate wastelands of similar books.

Beacon 23 by Hugh Howey

Again another book by thy same author. After reading the Wool trilogy I discovered he had written a lot of books. Many are included free in Audible, Spotify and other audio books subscriptions so I tried a few others and so far they have all been good and all quite different. None have yet followed a similar fomula or structure.

Beacon 23 is set in the distant future where space travel is common and beacons are placed like lighthouses to warn ships travelling at night speed of dangers to avoid such as asteroid fields.

Each beacon is manned by a single keepers to make sure they stay operational. The book was originally a set of alert stories published, begot being combined.

The story focuses on a single beacon operator suffering from ptsd and starting to to a bit mad from being isolated for so long. Far better than I was expecting.

The TV series based on this book is however complete rubbish. Other than being set in the beacon it shares nothing in common with the book.

Star Wars The High Republic.

This series of books is a large project to create a body of work set 200 years before the films, introducing completely new Jedi with unique and new protagonists. The novels are mixed with graphic novels and young adult novels, all combining to tell the overall story.

It's been released in 3 phases. The novels of phase one were very good, but phase two went 150 years further into the past and was no way near a good. The final phase is currently in progress with novels being released by different authors every few months. It's a continuation from the end of phase 1 and so far has been far better than the last phase. Although there has been a huge shift in the agenda of the writers. In the last book all but one of the main characters ended up being gay which just didn't feel realistic and very much a political agenda of the authors. A bit sad as the first phase didn't really concern itself too much with personal relationships, and the actual sort of the bevel was really good and just didn't need personal relationshipsas they didn't add to the events. Anyway the main story is good so there is hope for the rest of the novels to come.

Star Wars Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade by Delilah S. Dawson.

I'm about halfway through this book at the moment after running out of current releases for the High Republic. So far this is one of the best Star Wars novels in some time. Although it was released in 2018 so has taken me some time to get to it. There are a lot of Star Wars novels released. I've read over 50 in the last few years.

It's based at the time of the prequels starting just before the clone Wars began and though to Order 66 being triggered and how the Sith Inquisitors came to be.

It's told from the perspective of a Jedi Padawan who doesn't fit in well at the academy. Constantly fighting with her emotions and identity as well as her Masters. Her sense of being different from the other Jedi and not fitting in. It's quite different to many other Star Wars novels and an original perspective. Witnessing the war escalating but not being told much information. Then witnessing order 66 and getting a different view of the events that unfold after. We'll worth reading for any Star Wars fans.

[J T]

I was recently on holiday and decided to actually start trying to read one of the books that I've been carting around for a while. I can't remember the exact name or who wrote it but it's a book that Lady T bought from a local aviation museum, it's all about how Qantas acquired the Boeing 747 and the impacts it made.

It's simultaneously interesting and yet not all that captivating (it's easy to put down). This may or may not be the book to re-ignite my long dormant passion for reading.... I suspect it will not.