Reading

This has been a tremendous year for reading. It started with an audiobook in January, and then my leg surgery gave me a week stuck in bed. I used it to ditch the phone and put all my attention into the Kindle instead. Every few days I’d finish a book and buy the next one, with one rule: no new book until the last one is done. I mostly stuck to sci-fi, my favorite genre, with the occasional detour. Most nights I’d read for 30 to 60 minutes before falling asleep, and it’s been fantastic. I don’t feel a shred of guilt about enjoying a good book anymore, and I’ve stayed almost entirely in fiction. Here’s everything I read this year.

1. Midwinter Blood by Marcus Sedgwick ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book broke my dry spell. It weaves a real historic painting into a love story spanning centuries, each chapter jumping further back in time until it lands on the painting that started it all. Sedgwick actually won the Michael L. Printz Award for this one, and it’s easy to see why: the way he casts a web of everlasting love around a real artifact is genuinely clever. Still, 3 stars.

2. The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The sequel to The Three-Body Problem, the book behind the Netflix series of the same name and the first novel by an Asian author to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel. Liu Cixin is a tremendous sci-fi writer, though the books were written in Chinese and reach us through translation. This one drags badly through the first half, but the second half picks up the pace and sticks the landing, with world-building strong enough and enough cliffhangers that I forgave the slow start. 3 stars, mostly for making me wade through act one.

3. Exhalation by Ted Chiang ⭐️⭐️

Ted Chiang is a phenomenal sci-fi writer, and I loved Arrival, which is actually based on a story from his earlier collection, not this one. Exhalation is a set of stories that circle around time travel, less interested in the mechanics than in what it would actually mean for the people living through it. The title story alone won a Hugo. Several of the stories are genuinely interesting, but a few felt repetitive and a bit dense. Some exciting moments, but overall it didn’t land for me. 2 stars.

4. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Andy Weir has a background in software engineering and grew up with a physicist father and an electrical engineer mother, and it shows in how he writes science: accessible, funny, never condescending. Project Hail Mary was action-packed and kept me hooked start to finish. I loved Ryland’s self-deprecating humor, and Rocky might be one of the best alien characters I’ve read, especially watching Taumoeba evolve over the course of the book. Loved the movie equally, really well made. 4 stars.

5. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Dark Matter became an Apple TV+ series with Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly, and I’m glad I read the book first. Crouch takes the idea of parallel universes and runs with it in a genuinely fresh direction. The world-building and the descriptive detail as Jason navigates it are fantastic, and every character’s dilemma feels earned. I loved this one for both the science and the story. 4 stars.

6. Recursion by Blake Crouch ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Dark Matter hooked me enough that I didn’t hesitate to pick up another Crouch book. Recursion takes a completely different approach to messing with timelines, and I thought the story was laid out really well. False Memory Syndrome is a great hook to open on, and I spent most of the book wondering how he’d possibly tie it all together. He did. The only thing holding it back for me is how far-fetched the science of the brain gets by the end. 3 stars.

7. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie ⭐️⭐️⭐️

A classic Agatha Christie affair, and one of her best-known books. The build-up to the murders is well done, though I thought the ending stretched credibility a bit. An enjoyable read overall, mostly because it had been sitting unread on my Kindle for years and I finally got around to it. 3 stars.

8. All Systems Red by Martha Wells ⭐️⭐️⭐️

A fun, fast little action book. I zipped through it in about a week. This is the first in the Murderbot Diaries series, which has since been turned into an Apple TV+ show with Alexander Skarsgård as Murderbot. I loved the central character, though the story itself read more like an action romp than sci-fi. Enjoyable, but nothing more for me. 3 stars.

9. We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The opening of this book cracked me up, and by the end of chapter two I knew I was going to love it. It follows the brain of a techie who dies in an accident and wakes up as a self-replicating space probe, the first book in the Bobiverse series. The plot covers a huge amount of distance before branching into multiple characters, all spun off from the original Bob. Plenty of cliffhangers, plenty of thought-provoking moments. A genuinely entertaining read. 4 stars.

10. Artemis by Andy Weir ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A fast-paced lunar heist novel, once again with Weir’s signature rich world-building and accessible science. I loved the storyline and how it all came together. Some parts felt unrealistic, but then again, a heist in a city on the Moon was never going to play it straight. 4 stars!

11. Old Man’s War by John Scalzi ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The highlight of my year. Deadpan humor, a strong opening, and cliffhanger after cliffhanger. It’s a highly accessible military sci-fi novel about 75-year-old Earth recruits who trade their aging bodies for genetically enhanced, youthful new ones to go fight alien species across the galaxy. It was Hugo-nominated for good reason, and it’s the first in a longer series I’m now curious to continue. The plot was strong and I thoroughly enjoyed every page. So far, the only book this year that earns a full 5 stars.

12. Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The most recent book I finished, and the first in the series that became The Expanse. James S. A. Corey is actually a pen name shared by two writers, Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. The story alternates between two characters’ perspectives, and I thought it was interesting and well executed. I expected a bit more from the ending, but it was still satisfying. An entertaining read overall. 4 stars.

13. The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

One of the only non-fiction books on this list. Horowitz, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, writes about doing the hard things in professional life, drawing directly from his time running Loudcloud and Opsware. The experience shows, and the advice and dilemmas feel genuinely relatable. I haven’t finished it yet, but it’s already proving both relatable and valuable. 4 stars!

Currently in flight:

1. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award
2. The Rose Code by Kate Quinn