Reading Recap 2024, Week 1

Seadragon, Tripwire, Ashes of Man, Silmarillion

Last week I finished reading three books.

SEADRAGON was originally a comic book from 1986, written by Richard Paolinelli. He got the rights back and rewrote it as a novella, probably to start a new series. I cut a video on this one.

TRIPWIRE is the third Jack Reacher novel. I’m enjoying this series, I do feel like the plot twist was kind of predictable, so that took the wind out of it a little bit. I tried cutting a video on this one three times but the audio kept washing out. I’ll get it done this week.

ASHES OF MAN is the fifth Sun Eater novel. These are huge and hard to summarize, especially since the span centuries, and the main character is basically a thousand years old. Still, the larger movements of the saga paint a broad picture of a universe in the future, and it’s all set up under the idea of the main character explaining why he destroyed an entire solar system. There are two books left in the series. Slow read, but good, and Ruocchio is talented enough to pull it off.

One of my big projects this year is an in-depth read of THE SILMARILLION. I’m summarizing the chapters in 5 minute videos that will go live on the channel in rapid succession. This week I went through the introductory material at the front of the book, including a long piece written by Tolkien himself about his work. Stay tuned to the channel, these will drop later in the year.

Next week I’m reading THE WAY OF MORTALS, SUNSET SOVEREIGN, and SHADOW OF THE CONQUEROR.