User Profile

Kevin

ktneely@bookrastinating.com

Joined 3 years, 2 months ago

I love to read, I just don't do it as often as I'd like. The book is always greener on the other side.

I read more fiction than non-fiction, and more science-fiction than fiction.

My bookshelf has a row dedicated to older O'Reilly books, one dedicated to one-off hardbacks of long series I've read, such as Expanse, Harry Potter, H.P. Lovecraft, Shakespeare, and one dedicated to shoe-horning in board games.

@ktneely@infosec.exchange on Mastodon

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Kevin's books

Currently Reading (View all 8)

M. Darusha Wehm: Hamlet, Prince of Robots (2023, Wehm, Darusha)

"The two of you will take him to see England in Asset Management first thing tomorrow" "Asset Management?" Stern asked, her brow knitted in confusion. "Used to be Human Resources, but since the resources aren't all human any more we had to change the name," Polonius said.

Hamlet, Prince of Robots by  (Page 94)

One of the great little quips in this recasted novelization of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Zoe Quinn, Robbi Rodriguez: Goddess Mode (2019, DC Comics)

In a future not too far removed from our own, an all-powerful artificial intelligence called …

Came across this looking for interesting and recent #cyberpunk themed books. It looks like it could be interesting and the reviews I've seen are fairly positive.

started reading Season of Skulls by Charles Stross (The Laundry Files, #12)

Charles Stross: Season of Skulls (EBook, 2023, Orbit)

Welcome to the sunlit uplands of the 21st century! Britain's avuncular Prime Minister is an …

The new characters started out slow for me in Dead Lies Dreaming, but it's been picking up speed ever since I started that one. Here we are on the third novel with Wendy, Eve, Imp, and the crew.

40 pages in and I already know this one's going to be a banger!

#LaundryFiles #reading

Charles Stross: Dead Lies Dreaming (2021, Little, Brown Book Group Limited)

In a world where magic has gone mainstream, a policewoman and a group of petty …

"'Am I an acceptible proxy,,,, in the view of a particularly dim-witted nineteenth-century death spell attached to a codex bound in human skin by a mad inquisitor? It' like digital rghts management magic, only worse.'"

Dead Lies Dreaming by  (Page 247 - 248)

Intellectual Property law meets the rules of occult magic. Which one is more arcane is difficult to ascertain.

Charles Stross: Dead Lies Dreaming (2021, Little, Brown Book Group Limited)

In a world where magic has gone mainstream, a policewoman and a group of petty …

The PM was, unlike most of theotherlong-absent Gods, forward-looking tothe point of almost integrating into human society: he reputedly knew how to use email, which put him light years ahead of Tony Blair.

Dead Lies Dreaming by  (Page 260 - 261)

It's this kind of quippery that makes these books a joy to read.

Christopher Bollen: Havoc (EBook, HarperCollins)

In the vein of The Bad Seed comes a twisty, atmospheric psychological suspense about a …

Take a wild, fast-paced descent into the lives of hotel guests trappe by circumstances

From the florid descriptions of the hotel and its guests by the narrator, to her spiraling conflict with Otto, the author's use of language and voice really brings the scenes and characters of the Royal Karnak hotel to life. With a setting superbly matching the events, the woven tale is difficult to put down, but also made me hesitant to pick back up as the characters' actions become more extreme and violent. A faantastic summer read, but also really great for a chilly autumn day when you want both thrilling suspense but also dream of warmer months.

My only complaint was that the novel seemed to plateau for a bit in the middle then really kicked into high gear, racing toward the finish. I'd have liked a more steady build, but the overall length is just about right, and the story arc is thrilling.

I'm on the fence …

Toshikazu Kawaguchi: Before the coffee gets cold (2019)

[Fiction / Fantasy / Contemporary] What would you change if you could go back in …

Contrived time travel rules

This was okay. I picked it up in a foreign country, needing something to read on the flight home, and the options for books written in English were slim. It's four vignettes of cute little stories, but we don't really get to know the characters and it's difficult to garner much feeling for what they're going through.

It's not a sci-fi book, but even so, the rules are really contrived, but at least the first character to hear them points out the ridiculousness of the rules, so she was definitely my favorite.

It's a quick, cozy read that's nice enough.

wants to read Jack Four by Neal Asher

Neal Asher: Jack Four (Paperback, en-Latn-GB language, 2021, Tor) No rating

He knows he won’t survive captivity. And the only way to get even is to …

I've had a copy sitting on my bookshelf for a year or so. Now that The Human is almost a year in my rear-view, is it time to return to the Polity universe?

Charles Stross: The Delirium Brief (Paperback, 2018, Tor.com)

Forecast Ops as co-author

I'm way behind in the Laundry Files series, but I love it because I'll go and check in every so often, picking up where I left off. So here we are, reading The Delerium Brief, published in 2018, in the first quarter of 2025.

And from this I know that Forecast Ops (the section of the Laundry that uses oracles to peer into the future and use eldritch probability theory to prognosticate what is going to happen) is real and the author is in direct contact with them.

You see, the premise is that these secret goverment agencies that protect us from unimaginable powers sleeping in the dark recesses of space or wherever are being defunded and agents of those powers plan to use regulatory capture to remove them from the board. Reading this in 2025, it feels all too real, sort of like trying to find humor …

James S.A. Corey: The Mercy of Gods (Hardcover, 2024, Orbit)

How humanity came to the planet called Anjiin is lost in the fog of history, …

Beginning of the next big series by James S.A. Corey

I saw this just sitting on the shelf at my local library, not even realizing the James S.A. Corey had released the start of a new series! I had to pick this up and was pleased to see that it's quite a departure from the Expanse series, most notably that we see the aliens in the universe rather than them essentially being dead elder gods.

Having no previous expectations, I went into this completely cold and enjoyed it quite a bit as the authors crafted a rich universe and a number of characters to work with. At least at this point, I don't feel like any of the characters are as rich as those from The Expanse, but I know them through 9 novels + 9 novellas, so I'll give that some time. I'm definitely looking forward to the next one.

wants to read Solo Leveling, Vol. 5 (novel) by Chugong (Solo Leveling (novel), #5)

Chugong: Solo Leveling, Vol. 5 (novel) (EBook, 2022, Yen Press) No rating

Jinwoo’s received some amazing gifts from the system, but the latest one might prove to …

I read a couple of these while visiting some friends and picking up their high schooler's volumes 1 and 2. Now my completionist self is slowly working through this real-life-as-a-video-game Korean manga.

Neal Bodenheimer, Emily Timberlake, Denny Culbert: Cure (2022, Abrams, Inc.) No rating

Checked out from the library to mark the end of dry January, I'm working my way through the stories and some of the cocktails, necessitating a number of trips to pick up ingredients I didn't have on hand.